NCAA Academic Reform - It's about time

[Klinglerware]

Hopefully this will signal the start of the NCAA putting its money where its mouth is.

I hope we'll start to see the ideal where the "student" part of "student-athlete" is taken seriously again. With these new policies, boosters and athletic departments of "Bigtime U." can no longer hope to reach the post-season on the backs of mercenaries who don't belong at their school academically.

Incidentally, does anybody know which of the BCS schools would have been in danger of losing scholarships or getting banned from their bowl outright (i.e., via long consective years of poor academic performance) if this was implemented for last season?


hxxp://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=1964069

[wade moore]

Oh.. the folks at my alma-mater are going to have a field day with this. One of 4 schools in the country with 100% graduation rate, they like to flaunt that and use it as a crutch.

[JeeberD]

Uhoh, the Miners are gonna be in trouble...

[GoldenEagle]

This rule makes no sense to me at all. He big schools will find away around it. They will help students cheat through classes and earn degrees the never deserved. It seems like it is inviting everything that was wrong with college football back in. I do not like the change at all. A college degree is something you have to put in an enormous amount of work for. I, for one, do not want to see them given away.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

This rule makes no sense to me at all. He big schools will find away around it. They will help students cheat through classes and earn degrees the never deserved. It seems like it is inviting everything that was wrong with college football back in. I do not like the change at all. A college degree is something you have to put in an enormous amount of work for. I, for one, do not want to see them given away.

Good points. Perhaps instead of graduation rates, the NCAA should look at semester GPA, reasonable progress to degree, etc? I agree that you shouldn't give degrees away, but some of these kids shouldn't be admitted in the first place--the athletes are getting used if they're admitted with the acknowledgement that they have no chance of graduating.

Of course the rules could invite unintended abuses--but as the SEC and Maurice Clarett show, hypercompetitive institutions and aggrieved parties have every incentive to report cheating...