What are college scholarships for? Most would say the intended purpose is to help students with tuition while they attend a college seeking their degree in one of the academic fields. What would you say to Mississippi State University when their basketball coach tells a high school student that if he plays for the MSU basketball team that he will get the kid into the NBA in two years and that a scholarship will be provided him? Doesn't sound so good does it?
-
Lets look at this from another view. A student receives a scholarship to attend a university to study in the field of medicine with the end result of moving on into the research field. The student is brilliant, his research leads to a great cure for a disease that had no cure. A great contribution to society. Now lets look at the student going to college under a scholarship that eventually leads him into the NBA. He has a long career in the NBA and he sets new scoring records. His contribution to society is zip. But, for the basketball player he gains wealth and fame.
_
This is the evil of NCAA basketball. The scholarship handed out to students that show a great talent for playing basketball is done so under the disguise of eventually earning a degree in one of the academic fields. If you were to look at what the degree falls under you would see that's really a worthless field that will not gain the student any advantage in the working world. All colleges, coaches and basketball players know the end result is to make it to the NBA where fortunes are to be made. Is this wrong, well not really. For many of the students playing college basketball it's their only chance to achieve independence, and for those that do not make it into the NBA, life for many means working at menial jobs after leaving college. We all have a talent in something and it's this talent that we try to be the best at. We achieve a level of success based on how good we are at our talent and that is life.
_
So what it the beef here? It's the plain view that scholarships should only be given to students seeking a degree in an academic field, one that will eventually benefit society and not one that only provides for fame and fortune which provides no contribution to society. But to limit scholarships as such would go against college tradition and take away from the college life itself. College sports is part of the very fabric that makes up a college. It's part of why some student's elect to attend a certain college over another. I for one do not wish to see any changes made to recruitment practices, go ahead and promise a student that he will make the NBA in 2 years. Go ahead and give a scholarship for a kid to play basketball. I'm for it.
-
Yes I'm for keeping the status quo, but I will still have heartburn over wasting a scholarship for some kid to play basketball. Here is my solution. The NBA treats NCAA basketball as nothing more than an collection of farm teams. So why not have the NBA contribute to the college farm teams by way of penalties paid to the NCAA. If the NBA drafts a college basketball player out of college before the player attains his degree, then the team that drafts the player must pay a penalty fee in the sum of $300,000. This fee would cover the cost spent on the player's scholarship and would also provide additional funds for other scholarships that would be used for academics and not sports. This would also have the benefit of slowing down the ever increasing tuition cost for students.
-
Well there you have my take on the subject, what say you about it?
No comments:
Post a Comment