Aug 08 2008
Division I Universities Should Return to Their Mission
College is not for everyone. At least not for every 18-year-old. People want different things at different times in their lives. Education might not be very important to a 20-year-old but he may decide he wants more schooling when he’s 40. That’s why people graduate from college at age 30, 50 and 80 every year. Joe Namath graduated from Alabama last year, more than 40 years after his college football career at the school ended. So it is possible.
Maybe your father or grandfather went to trade school after high school to learn to be a welder, a plumber or a carpenter. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Those jobs are important. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with kids who are good enough to turn pro at 18.
I don’t like how the NFL bans players for three years after high school. We all know Maurice Clarett didn’t go to Ohio State for an education. We all know Ohio State wouldn’t have looked twice at Clarett if he couldn’t run with a football. Clarett used Ohio State to improve his chance at a pro football career and make money. The school used him to win games and make money. How does that help a university’s supposed mission? It sounds like a business transaction.
I don’t like the NBA instituting a 19-year-old age limit. If an 18-year-old can go to Iraq and die, he should be allowed to play professional basketball. I agree that there aren’t many teenage phenoms like LeBron James or Wayne Gretzky. I can’t even remember the last great teenage baseball player. There have been some well-known washouts, like Ryan Leaf.
There have also been some forgettable busts. Do you remember Leon Smith? He was drafted in the first round by San Antonio several years ago. Last I heard, he was in a psych ward after police found him alone with a gun in a hotel room. The kid had a lot of talent and a lot of issues. You probably know some people like that. Clubhouses are full of them.
Then again, colleges won’t close five years from now. That option will be there long after the ability to play is gone. What football and basketball should do is follow the examples of baseball and hockey. Create a minor league. Draft 18-year-olds who don’t want to go to college and send them to Double-A teams so they develop. I don’t know a way to let LeBron into the NBA at 18 but keep Leon Smith out. I just know the system isn’t fair. It’s another business transaction. Fans care athletes as toys for their amusement. Athletes care about fans for their wallets.
Baseball and hockey have minor-league systems because the pro games became popular before the college versions did. Baseball teams needed feeder programs so they devised minor-league squads. Hockey teams set up junior-league organizations.
College football and college basketball became fan favorites before their professional counterparts. Players like Red Grange and teams like City College of New York put college programs on the map while the NFL and NBA were still battling for survival. The good news was the two leagues had access to the best young players available. They were already groomed by major universities. Therefore, there was no reason to establish a minor league. It was savvy to let the colleges continue to do the dirty work. In fact, the NFL and NBA have tried to crush any hint of competition that they couldn’t buy out.
Microsoft is getting sued around the world for being a monopoly but Major League Baseball has an antitrust exemption. That exemption needs to be eliminated immediately. Other American businesses has it and it’s just not fair. If Congress passed a law more than 80 years ago giving your boss special permission to hold you to one place of employment forever, you’d be angry too. You’re worth what you can get. If you never had the ability to sell your talents to the highest bidder, you’d be miffed. If you weren’t allowed to play because you had the wrong skin color, you wouldn’t be happy. If the Supreme Court ruled such treatment was acceptable and most of the general public agreed, you’d be furious. You might even have a chip on your shoulder.
Some people say the college game would be better by forcing players to spend four years in school. That’s probably true but I don’t think that’s the point. The game might be better but the college system itself is worse. Universities are supposed to educate, not make money playing sports. Boosters who buy sweatshirts and season tickets but who know nothing about a college beyond its win-loss record don’t care about that. I don’t blame them. They have the same mentality about pro teams. Fans don’t care about the people wearing the uniforms. They just care about the uniforms themselves.
The cliché is “It’s not the name of the back of the jersey, it’s the name of the front of the jersey.” It’s as socialistic as Americans allow themselves to get. The individual is not important, just the team. I just don’t know why fans get mad when athletes have the same don’t-care mentality about them. Why should players think any differently when they know the fans who supposedly love them will only cheer for them as long as they’re All-Pro? Only the most arrogant or most stupid players fail to understand the fans’ love is conditional. Do you like being supported only until you screw up or can’t perform as well as you once did? That’s when you need help the most but that’s when you get it the least.
When it happens at the General Motors plant in Detroit, downsizing creates a national uproar. When it happens at the ballpark in Detroit, the silence is deafening. A lot of players may not want to go to college but they’re not all dumb.
Educators should care though. They’re the ones who will suffer. I know that seems to run counter to my strong capitalist beliefs but it absolutely fits with my utilitarian views. Why should institutions of higher learning devote so many resources to keeping pseudo-students eligible when said players don’t want to be there and have no business taking seats away from students who would benefit from the education they’d receive. Fans don’t have to cheat to keep athletes eligible. Educators do. Boosters will sleep well, win or lose. I doubt professors would happily sacrifice their principles for money. I know I wouldn’t. That’s why most of them are professors. If they wanted money, they’d be elsewhere.
Unfortunately for them, university presidents are becoming little more than glorified fundraisers. Major colleges are multi-billion dollar organizations. A guy teaching biology for 30 years can’t get promoted to the campus presidency and expect to succeed. It’s not his expertise.
