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Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

nytimes.com

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Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#181

Post by partialrecall »

falcrist wrote: post #96
magashna wrote: post #6

Sounds like students opt-in to this to get rewards later. It's not a penalty, it's more like you don't get a free lottery ticket.

It's still a bit orwellian to manipulate students into installing a tracking app like that. Couldn't they just have the students who want to opt in swipe or tap their student IDs as they enter and again as they leave?

The likely reason they're using phones, not keycards, is because students would be more likely to let their buddy hold onto their keycard than their phone. A phone is more personal/sensitive and the stress of being without it for even a short period of time doubtlessly reduces the incidence rate of 'fraud.'

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#182

Post by craftyguy »

dusing wrote: post #173

Developer of the App here, we do this for many NCAA and Professional sports teams. Any questions?

So you're saying this statement in the article is incorrect?

> The app it created for Alabama is the only one that tracks the locations of its students.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#183

Post by craftyguy »

tqi wrote: post #176

When I was a student, I was required to buy a little clicker that I used to answer mini quiz questions at lectures. Professors used that to track attendance. Yet there were no breathless NYT pieces about how Professors were tracking student locations... Is it only "Orwellian" when GPS is involved?

The app won't magically be incapable of tracking students outside of the stadium, so the risk of abuse is exceedingly higher than your little clicker thing which likely didn't have the range to track you from very far away.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#184

Post by sverige »

pitt1980 wrote: post #41
qws wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really still profitable in e.g. that case of Dabo Swinney landing a 93 million dollar contract?

The places where the profitability of football is in question is basically everything lower than the 5 main conferences (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big XII, and Pac 10), and especially the schools lower than that level which aren't reliable winners. (Think the San Jose State's of the world) Clemson football generated 50 million dollars last year https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/sports/college/clemso... While 93 million…

It's profitable only because the players aren't paid. Only a small percentage of the players make it to the NFL. Many of the remainder suffer physical consequences for the rest of their lives. It's one of the most obscene exploitation schemes still remaining.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#185

Post by basementcat »

yumraj wrote: post #157
impendia wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can't the American football industry run itself more like the American baseball industry? I am a very strong opponent of the overwhelming sports culture at American universities, and of the absurd sums of money spent to sustain it. (Example: Dabo Swinney was just given a $93 million contract to remain the football coach of Clemson.) This >Defenders of the current system will often claim that football is profita…

> successful football programs generate positive publicity for the school Maybe for lower tier colleges, but I sincerely doubt that anyone gives a rodents behind how the football teams of Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, CalTech and others top-tier Universities are, before applying to them.

Apparently even Caltech has been sanctioned for violating NCAA rules.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.si.com/college-basketball/2...

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#186

Post by yabadabadoes »

partialrecall wrote: post #181
falcrist wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a bit orwellian to manipulate students into installing a tracking app like that. Couldn't they just have the students who want to opt in swipe or tap their student IDs as they enter and again as they leave?

The likely reason they're using phones, not keycards, is because students would be more likely to let their buddy hold onto their keycard than their phone. A phone is more personal/sensitive and the stress of being without it for even a short period of time doubtlessly reduces the incidence rate of 'fraud.'

Doesn't everyone have an old phone at this point? Is the app going to check if activity implies it is their current phone?

It seems easy and less intrusive for the majority(?) who wont get anything in return for installing a sketchy app to just give tickets out randomly toward the end of a game and anyone who is there at the end more often has a better chance of getting one.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#187

Post by altoidaltoid »

chronjc839 wrote: post #95
rhinoceraptor wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> probably the most underpaid state employee What about the athletes themselves who are taking years off their lives, while getting absolutely no compensation?

> What about the athletes themselves who are taking years off their lives, while getting absolutely no compensation? 1. They are compensated with a degree, and not to mention the "luxury" benefits that come with being an athlete: better food, housing, tutors, golf carts for class, etc. 2. No one is forcing them to go to college.

>20% of D1 college players don't even graduate.

If you get injured, poof scholarship

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#188

Post by grogenaut »

vonmoltke wrote: post #85
grogenaut wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of students don't really get a free ride. They get a free ride to be on the team, like an unpaid internship. The realities of a D1 team is that, depending on the school and the player, barely go to school. In D1 the priority is Sports, Academics. I played in D3 where the priority is Academics, Sports. We calculated we spent at least 800 hours per season on the sport. About 3000 hours over 4 years. D1 sports is…

> In D1 the priority is Sports, Academics. That is an uncharitable overgeneralization. There are 345 D1 schools. Many, if not most, do not have that prioritization.

If you are playing for a scholarship the emphasis is on sports, if it's not you lose the scholarship. It doesn't have to be direct emphasis.

I talked to the coaches for a few D1 schools, even ones who weren't known to be good at sports and heavy on academics like Northwestern (at the time) had a little talk with prospective players about the balance between the two. They recommended you do not attempt any difficult majors while playing football as the conflict between the two would be too difficult to manage.

That is directly putting sports above academics. And that was for practice squad kids.

Yes there may be schools that are better at it, but scholarships change the equation.

I've talked to many many people who played college sports at all levels, this may not be statistical but this was well over 100 people.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#189

Post by grogenaut »

hobofan wrote: post #143
grogenaut wrote: post #65

The university I went to is in the top 20 (top 8 when I went)(this is just for context not to start an argument about rankings). The school is also in the top 20 in endowments. When I was there they did an analysis of alumni donations. One thing they found out was that if you did 2 or more activities in high school you were likely to do 1 or more activities in college. (these numbers are ballpark) If did ANY activiti…

Are those millionaire/billionaire alumnis making donations? To me it sounds really strange that "normal" alumni would donate to their university in addition to the already expensive tuition they pay off over decades.

Many of the major donors who were doing things like funding buildings would also toss in a tennis court or jerseys for all of the teams.

The low end donations were also a lot higher for anyone in a club. The school allows targeted donations. So if you wanted you could donate to sports.

They also have smart alumni things. For instance for $2000, I can buy a plaque over the locker for the player with my number (essentially buying the number). It would have been $500 but 2 of them got in a bidding war, and $2k is the price to knock them both out.

Re: Alabama tracking students' locations to penalize them for leaving games early

#190

Post by posterboy »

sverige wrote: post #184
pitt1980 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The places where the profitability of football is in question is basically everything lower than the 5 main conferences (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big XII, and Pac 10), and especially the schools lower than that level which aren't reliable winners. (Think the San Jose State's of the world) Clemson football generated 50 million dollars last year https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/sports/college/clemso... While 93 million…

It's profitable only because the players aren't paid. Only a small percentage of the players make it to the NFL. Many of the remainder suffer physical consequences for the rest of their lives. It's one of the most obscene exploitation schemes still remaining.

that's nothing against the european hooligan scene, who meet to literally bash each other's heads in, in the extreme cases. While the societal affiliations hardly compare, the disparity is the same.

If you lose, it's your fault, but if you win, then we win. It's symptomatic, whether with burned out programmers, upto and over 50% of university drop-outs (in certain programs like maths or physics at least), blue collar workers who break their backs, etc. etc.

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