FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Sir Spiedie]

The average SAT score at the University of Florida for incoming freshman is around 1200. The latest recruitment class for the University of Florida includes players who, and I am putting this charitably, can in no way shape or form be said to be representative of the student body. The vast majority of the scholarship athletes, at least in football, would have virtually no chance to be admitted to the University of Florida on academic achievment. I suspect the same is true of Ohio State and Michigan, Stanford, and many other major DI programs.  Do not be misled by graduation rates. They include scout teams, which skew the numbers drastically.

[stoonk]

Larry Kehres at 246- 20-3  be like Smuckers Jelly and Smuckers Peanut Butter of Orrville Ohio---Simply The Best!!!

[e_lee]

Smuckers Peanut Butter does not hold a candle to JIF

[NCC_alum62]

The average SAT score at the University of Florida for incoming freshman is around 1200. The latest recruitment class for the University of Florida includes players who, and I am putting this charitably, can in no way shape or form be said to be representative of the student body. The vast majority of the scholarship athletes, at least in football, would have virtually no chance to be admitted to the University of Florida on academic achievment. I suspect the same is true of Ohio State and Michigan, Stanford, and many other major DI programs.  Do not be misled by graduation rates. They include scout teams, which skew the numbers drastically.

I would not be so sure about Stanford, they have tougher requirements than most and athletes still have to have some brains.

Yes graduation rates can be misleading, I wasn't really trying to highlight them, just as a dumb kid may flunk out after he's done playing, a smart kid may opt out of a senior year to enter the draft, thus not graduating.

Florida may have a higher average of 1200 but minimum requirements for the institution are a 950 combined SAT and a C average in core academic classes. Thats not too difficult to achieve as compared to 1200. (According to the University's Undergrad Admissions website http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/frqualify.html )

OSU doesn't list its minimum scores, niether does Michigan

Also there is a difference in minimum requirements for state and private schools, OSU, Michigan, UF, etc are state schools, whereas Stanford, Northwestern, and the Ivies are all private.

My point was that the problem begins in high school by not properly holding student ATHLETES (instead of STUDENT-athletes) accountable. This problem is compounded when colleges recruit these kids and ignore even thier own minimum standards, that sends a terrible message to America's youth.

[reality check]

I'm guessing that 1200 number is reflective of the re-structured SAT as the SAT I took had a max score of 1600 and 1200 was a very respectable score.  I know the SAT has changed since I was in high school.  Is it based on 2400 points now? 

[Sir Spiedie]

NCC-- How many non-scholarship athletes do you think are are making it into UF with a 950 SAT and C average? The point is that the reality of the situation at UF and many, many other schools is that scholarship athletes (football) are NOT representative of the student body. At many DIII institutions they would stick out like sore thumbs, and would be ineligible for most of the non-need based aid. In fact, some DIII schools have gotten into trouble for just that.

By the way, this is not going to change anytime soon, so there is not much point in worrying about it. 

[Small but Slow]

As unfair as it may be people hold gifted athletes and beautiful women on a pedestal above us all.  They don't have to be smart, clever, or decent to be worshipped by the common man. I was in a local watering hole when a wealthy pro athlete walked in with some of his buddies.  The working class stiffs in the bar were falling over themselves to buy this dude a and his boys drinks.  That's the mentality that prevails and carries on to the universities.

[NCC_alum62]

It is a mentality that is predominent in America, and yes we worship those that do things we cannot. Thats fine, but there is a difference between a wealthy pro and a washed up college guy that got an athletic scholarship and never actually learned anything.

The athletes that make it don't have the problem, its the dummy that doesn't that worries me...the Maurice Claretts of college athletics are what troubles me. If an athlete can make it all power to them, if they can't I don't want my tax dollars to go towards putting them in prison after they couldn't do anyhting with thier lives past football.

[SJFF82]

Here's a good one.  Big Ten Commish pulls academic card in letter to members.
http://bigten.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020907aaa.html

There was another aritcle on Yahoo about Clemson's admissions requirements...how the booster club wanted them to lower the standards to get kids into the school after signing letters of intent.

This is absolutly disturbing. To think that we must lower excellence in the classroom in favor of excellence on the football field.  Hats off to someone saying they weren't going to do that. Its the job of high school and college coaches to mold these powerful athletes into young men.  If we give a pass to a kid just becasue he is the biggest and the strongest what kind of message does that send? Forget learning to be a better citizen, learning to read and write, and function as a member of society, if you can run a 4.3 you don't have to go to class or respect women or stay out of jail because as a coach I need you to get me in a bowl game....its absolutly the death of the student athlete and the end of football as a teaching tool for life.

I think football helps teach us that adversity is something we have to confront and over come. And adversity comes not only from an opponent but from your life. Trying to make decent grades, keeping yourself eligible, making the right choices, and getting an education, because not every person who runs a 4.3 is going to get in the NFL.  in 1998 Tennessee had a graduation rate of something like 22% for its football team, thats unbelievable.  What happens to those kids when they find themselves unable to hold a good job when they realize they aren't going pro?

They didn't have to learn the basics in H.S. because they were a great athlete and now they can't gradaute college because they don't have the basic skills to even get through the remedial classes.

Its time to raise standards, not lower them, its time to enforce the academic policies of having a C average in order to play H.S. sports and keeping teachers and coaches acountable for that.  I hope that reporter who wrote that article realizes what they are saying when they say standards have to be lowered to get those fast kids out of Florida and Texas...maybe if they had better teachers and higher standards they could have gotten an academic scholarship instead of an athletic one.

The problem with this theory is that it assumes that the NCAA and its institutions really aspire to educate 'these' student-athletes that you are referring to.  The point is that they do not.  Their attitude is...they didnt learn in grade school and high school and so they are never going to be academically able bodies...yet they are inevitably going to become adults so we might as well use them to make millions in the meantime (the meantime being the 4 years in between HS and the rest of their lives).  The NCAA, regardless of all its regs and 'talk-speak' could care a less about the education of the student-athlete that himself does not care or is otherwise incapable of being educated.  Consequently the NCAA will take whatever measures that it can reasonably take to insure that these kids continue to get scholarships (which should aptly be re-named 'athlete'ships) to come to 'school' and play football, bb or whatever.

Follow the money is their motto, otherwise, the answer and result is terribly simple...one academic standard for admission of all students and one academic standard for remaining in school and graduating...but the result would possibly cost billions to the enterprise that major college athletics has become. 

[SJFF82]

the Maurice Claretts of college athletics are what troubles me. 

There are hundreds of thousands of Maurice Claretts of the world that never went to college in the first place so how is it any more troubling for him to have done what he has done versus the rest who never make it into the 'lime-light' in the first place, but still turn out just like him?

[section13raiderfan]

Smuckers Peanut Butter does not hold a candle to JIF

Hmmmm...was this said tongue in cheek? Or perhaps tongue stuck to roof of mouth?  Smuckers makes Jif....would they be pleased at E_Lee's endorsement...or would they consider it a slam?   Hmmmm.

[NCC_alum62]

the Maurice Claretts of college athletics are what troubles me. 

There are hundreds of thousands of Maurice Claretts of the world that never went to college in the first place so how is it any more troubling for him to have done what he has done versus the rest who never make it into the 'lime-light' in the first place, but still turn out just like him?

I think you took my meaning a little too literally I was saying the Maurice Claretts plural, I meant all the examples of college kids who got in on athletic scholarship and becasue there was no accountability for whatever reason took a wrong path.  I didn't mean just specifically the OSU player.  And for every Maurice Clarett there is a Troy Smith who turns thier life around because they were given the chance.

I meant every scholarship athlete who makes similar self-destructive choices

Its a hard issue no doubt about it

[frank uible]

Them Ohioans are an unpredictable lot.

[seventiesraider]

Them Ohioans are an unpredictable lot.

You must be talking about Art Schlichter

[frank uible]

How about U.S. Grant?