Colleges Have Gone Money Mad!

The debacle going on at Carolina resulting in players losing eligibility, the school probably being placed on NCAA probation and a big chance they will have to give back all of their wins in 2008 and 2009 and maybe even 2010 brings us to the question, What ever happened to intercollegiate athletics?

Does any body remember the day when the ACC required any athlete to score 800 on the SAT to even play sports.Those days are long gone as now-a-days all you need to do is run fast, catch a ball or shoot a basket and you can play at my school.

Back in my days of covering Chowan Junior college back in the 80's and early 90's Chowan had a place in the college world of being a place to go when you couldn't get in the big schools.  It was good for an athlete but it was also for that student that needed to learn how to study and make better grades before transferring to the major institutions.

What happened to that world where if you are not good enough to qualify to get in school you don't go there?  Go somewhere else and learn some academic responsibility and then call us and we will see if we will take you then.

The answer of course is money and Cable TV, ESPN, CBS College sport channels need to fill 24 hours a day of sports and colleges have plenty of that regardless of the sport.  Colleges found out very quickly they could make more from TV in one game than 50,000 fannies sitting in the stadium watching the games.  Even though this is not a college I see the day the NFL could be seen only on cable and not even in a stadium in front of fans.  TV is where the money is.

There is no doubt that the NCAA is a ship wreck with a 6,000 page rule book.  I find that a rule like a school can not pay  for a players ride home if a parent dies to be insane.  I am against any player receiving more than an athletic scholarship.  There are times when just being a human being is important and getting a player home in emergencies is just the right thing to do.

I read on Tuesday Ken Herman's story in the Telegram and his suggestion that Football be made into a college curriculum.  Send players to college to study football whether it is to be a professional football player coach, agent what ever that  may lead a person in a football life.  I like that idea.

You know in colleges today that 70% of people that graduate college are doing something besides their major in school. So colleges train for four years  in some cases six years students to be one thing and when opportunity knocks they head in a different direction.  Today's football players already major in football so why don't we give them a degree and say they are qualified to do something in life related to football.

Kind of makes you want to scratch you head and think about that doesn't it.