The Vanderbilt Chancellor wrote an article that was printed in the Washington Post regarding his disbandment of the athletic department at Vandy. At the end of that article, he made two excellent points. If the NCAA and/or the university presidents could implement these concepts/ideas, there would be a major change for the better in collegiate sports.
Chancellor Gee said that schools have to return to at least a pretense of academic pursuits by athletes. He said that they should not continue to permit sham courses and concocted majors that would embarrass a diploma factory that you contact because you read about them on the cover of a matchbook. He is right on the mark with that observation. The great university institutions of the world have been graduating scholars who attend that institution to learn a body of knowledge that grows because other scholars continue to add to the understanding. That is why departments and majors exist in the first place. That is why there should never be a major in Playground Sandbox Management. Another favorite major that I look for on telecasts is “Sports and Leisure Studies”. I always imagine a course in which the students are taught to play rock/scissors/paper in order to determine who will bring the beer and who will bring the pizza to the Super Bowl Party.
Chancellor Gee also said that the sharing of revenues among the schools and conferences need to be tied in some way to graduation rates for athletes in these real – and not concocted – major programs. Holy purse strings, Batman!! Imagine if an SEC school won the championship game in the BCS but only got 1% of the revenue because of its graduation rate and Vandy got 50% of the revenue even though its season record was 2-9. This would get the attention of the folks who are involved with that nagging thing called “fiducial responsibility” at various universities. I'm waiting for Dr. Myles Brand to weigh in here, but it is going to take a while for him to get on this page.
One point in Chancellor Gee's article was a bit self-serving and pompous. He said that in many universities the athletic departments had become isolated from the school at large and had become arrogant. I don't doubt for a minute the veracity of that statement but I do think that it is not uncommon at universities. Imagine Professor Bigbrain who won the Nobel Prize for Whatever two years ago and his laboratory minions. Do you think they are “isolated” from the school? You bet they are. Do you think that Prof Bigbrain and his minions have a haughty view of their stature on the campus? Bank on it. My point is that many parts of a university are insular and believe that they are above average – in fact probably every part of a university thinks it is above average. That includes the athletic departments and it should not be an indictment leveled at them alone.
With regard to the hypocrisy in NCAA athletics, you need look not much further than the Chris Webber situation at Michigan. If you would like to read something about the status of that mess and why it will not get resolved in any way that might make you or me feel happy about the resolution, I urge you to go and read Mitch Albom's column in the Detroit Free Press on 21 September. As usual, Albom gets right down to the core of the matter.
If you are a season ticket holder at Virginia Tech and you are looking forward to seeing your team play in the ACC, here is some financial impact for you. Season ticket holders will be required to make a $1,500 donation to the VA Tech Athletic Department just for the privilege of holding onto their season tickets in 2005. This is the collegiate version of the personal seat license.
I see where Maurice Clarett will sue the NFL. Everyone says he is going to win. Ok, I'll believe that for now. After all, the NFL's record in court is not a whole lot better than the French Army's record in the last 100 years. So let's assume for a minute that Clarett is eligible for the draft next spring. He will have been out of football for a year and missed out on a year's worth of learning and developing skills. He will obviously have been less than a model citizen on his most recent team and with his position coach. So where would he be drafted? If I am an NFL GM, I would not take him in the first round. I suspect that he will need some seasoning time on the bench to learn all the ramifications of what a running back in the NFL has to do and no team in this era of salary-cap-induced parity can afford to put a first round pick into a one or two year tutorial program. The signing bonus slotted for first round picks makes their bench status a real luxury item.
A new Arena Football League team, the Philadelphia Soul, will be co-owned by Ron Jaworski and Jon Bon Jovi. Well, at least the team should not have any great difficulty in coming up with halftime entertainment…
Some NFL items that are interesting:
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Warren Sapp has two pass receptions, one touchdown and zero sacks.
The Bengals are 0-3, which is not unusual; they also sold out two consecutive home games, which is unusual. They have not done that in more than 10 years.
The Chargers are 0-3 and they limped down the stretch last year. The play the next two games on the road against teams that do not look like juggernauts (Oakland and Jax). If they are 0-5 going to their bye week, Marty Shottenheimer could be toast.
Bill Cowher and Marvin Lewis are coaching rivals in the same division. In high school, they played against one another in the Pittsburgh area.
The Raiders' offense is next to last in the AFC; the Raiders' defense is dead last in the AFC. The Raiders are only converting 19% of their third down situations so far this year.
The Raiders get the Chargers, Bears and Browns as their next three opponents. They could win all three and should blow out at least one of these teams. If not, the Raiders could come apart at the seams very quickly.
Duante Culpepper is doubtful for the game next Sunday because he has three broken bones in his back. How many broken vertebrae would it take for him definitely to be out of the game? Just wondering…
Shaun Alexander's wife gave birth to a daughter just before last weeks game. The baby was named Heaven. Pity the next-born in the Alexander household…
At one point in June, the Seattle Mariners were 48-22. That record projects out to a 111 win season. Since then, the Mariners went through a 41-44 stretch and are about to be eliminated from the playoffs.
Finally, Lock Haven University in Lock Haven PA has the nickname The Bald Eagles. Remember Sy Sperling? He was not only the president of the Hair Club for Men; he was also a client. I wonder if he is also an alum of Lock Haven University…
But don't get me wrong, I love sports...
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