Student-athletes? Colleges use them then lose them

[flashl]

Players deliver big money. The least schools can do is educate them.

When the NCAA released its annual report on graduation rates for college athletes in October, President Myles Brand proclaimed that "in the athletic culture, the idea of academic performance is taking hold." He couldn't have been thinking of the universities profiting so handsomely from the current lineup of bowl games.

As usually is the case in college football, most of the teams that are doing best on the field aren't exactly shining in the classroom.

This is evident in the very statistics that Brand hailed.

Take Monday's national championship game between schools with storied football programs, Ohio State and Louisiana State.

At Ohio State, only 53% of the football players who entered college on scholarships from 1997 through 2000 graduated within six years. LSU graduated only 51%.

They are not the worst among the 10 universities represented in this year's top bowls. The universities of Georgia, Hawaii and Oklahoma graduated just over four in 10 players.

USAToday - Read Full Text

[Darth Lenore]

1. And a lot of the time, they don't even deliver the money.

My ex works for the financial aid office of a state university, and he handles a lot of student athlete scholarships. According to him, at that particular university, the amount of money the football players receive is not that much less than what they bring in, and just over 70% of them use up their 4 years of eligibility and leave without a degree. It's ridiculous.


I really, really dislike the football obsession in universities. I got my MA from Ohio State and it was insane and really quite pathetic. I wish American universities were like universities elsewhere in the world with their approach to sports.

[flashl]

2. This is my third year of following this report and it is not improving. n/t