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(Tenured Radical)

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Be It Ever So Decadent,
There's No Place Like Home





'"What's worth more - a 4.0 GPA or a 4.0 second 40 yard dash?" [The question is asked by the board of the University of Georgia student newspaper, in italics, at the beginning of an editorial. Answer, also in italics:] "It depends."


[Yes, it depends. Stupidity and ignorance can stand you in very good stead in this great land of ours, and we want to keep our athletes focused on being brainless, argues the editorial board, lest they compromise their college and professional athletic careers.... What about the fact that almost none of the college players who try to go pro succeed in doing so? The fact that even a relatively successful pro career is liable to be rather short? The University of Georgia student newspaper does not take up these facts.]

Monday, the editorial board got a look at the grades for student athletes at the University, and frankly we were not surprised. [Who would be? Not only does the editorial board not give a shit about educating the typically rather underprivileged people who make up their big sports teams; they know that their university doesn't either. So whaddya expect their grades to look like?]

The overall average for male athletes' GPA was [...] 2.8, and the females just made the B-average cut with a 3.09. The total average of all athletes was a 2.94.

At first glance, a 2.94 GPA isn't the grade anyone looking to further their academic career would want, but is a GPA what student athletes really care about? [Certainly not! We don't care; the school doesn't care; the athletes don't care. Win-win situation.]

When we complain about athletes making poor grades, we are holding athletic-centered students [Interesting phrase, 'Athletic-centered students.' I'm thinking Alcohol-centered students... Plagiarism-centered students...] to the same standards as academic-centered students. This idea is contrary to our society's belief that different jobs and aspects of life have unique, non-intrinsic values based on arbitrary contexts. [Properly deployed, sophomoric jargon and relativism may produce good results. Not in this case.]

Athletes are often under pressure to devote their lives to something other than the sports industry because some people do not see athletics as a worthy pursuit. Yet, it cannot be argued that our society as a whole does not value athletic ability.

So why are the grade averages of University sports teams being publicly distributed? Why is athletic worth being tied to academic performance? In simple terms, if a person wants to make a living playing a sport, do they need a 4.0 to do it?

No.

In the world of professional sports, no one cares what an athlete's GPA is. For hopeful pro athletes, high academic marks are not a prerequisite for success. In the case of football, how many grade point averages were announced before Sunday's big game?

Zero.

It's not just sports, though. In a similar fashion, many jobs out of college - including those in journalism - view practical experience rather than grade point averages as the most important factor in hiring someone.

Whether it's an internship, playing on the field or working at a college newspaper, it all boils down to doing what it takes to get a job.

For whatever industry a student wants to work in they should do everything in their power to make sure they are prepared for that industry. Yet people mock athletes for trying to do well in their chosen profession.

You may have a 4.0 and a 2400 on the SAT, but you probably can't play 25 consecutive minutes of competitive Division-1 college athletics - and you may not want to. In the same regard, some athletes might not want a stellar GPA but they do want to excel on the playing field.

Why is one OK and the other often viewed with disgust?

As of right now, there is no dedicated preparatory institution designed to prepare men and women for the rigors of professional athletics. So why are some condemned when they don't fit conveniently into the only system they have available to them - collegiate sports programs?

As a society, we have to decide what is important. If the collective wish is to champion intelligence over physical ability, we must stop celebrating athletics. However, if we wish to keep athletic competition at the forefront of our lives then perhaps we need to stop condemning its participants for poor academic performance. '



This is the clearest, most honest statement of an important American reality -- several of our universities are training facilities whose attitude toward the education of some of their neediest students is not indifference so much as active hostility -- that I've yet seen. You won't hear it from the NCAA. Only from the mouths of babes.