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U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

nytimes.com

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Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#11

Post by dragonwriter »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #5

Why is every semi-pro athlete expected to get a decent GPA in order to play on a university's football team? It's a completely different skillset. I don't blame players for ditching classes to pursue their dreams. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's the same drive as an entrepreneur's: to test yourself, to excel. It's just a different context. They are adults. If, as adults, they choose not to pursue academic studies,…

> Why is every semi-pro athlete expected to get a decent GPA in order to play on a university's football team?

Because there are semi-pro teams and university teams, and the two things are not the same thing.

> If, as adults, they choose not to pursue academic studies, and instead choose to focus all of their energy on sports, then they should be allowed to do that without putting their sports career at risk.

Sure, and if they choose to do that, they should do it somewhere other than an academic institution.

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#12

Post by rrrx3 »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #5

Why is every semi-pro athlete expected to get a decent GPA in order to play on a university's football team? It's a completely different skillset. I don't blame players for ditching classes to pursue their dreams. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's the same drive as an entrepreneur's: to test yourself, to excel. It's just a different context. They are adults. If, as adults, they choose not to pursue academic studies,…

The problem is that they're being exploited. Choose to go to class or not, they are not being paid anything remotely close to the value that these schools get from them in terms of team gear sales, ad revenue, tv time, increased enrollment, etc etc etc.

This is especially true when they're turning in BS papers for crap degrees that can't and won't serve them once they leave school. A minuscule few make it pro. The rest - if they graduate, even - have only an AFAM degree to show for it and no real life skills.

I agree that if they want to be athletes, they should be allowed to be athletes. But they should be paid appropriately for it in kind.

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#13

Post by JoeAltmaier »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure; but they shouldn't be playing on a college team. As in, if you don't work at a company you shouldn't play on the company team.

Why not? (I ask this in hopes of being persuaded, not to defend a position.)

Because colleges have the stated goal of educating people. Its cynical (as the commenter above mentioned at the end) to join the college with no intention of actually getting educated. Its called a 'shill' or ringer - somebody you get from outside to represent you, that is not actually a member of your organization beyond the single task (sports).

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#15

Post by maxerickson »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure; but they shouldn't be playing on a college team. As in, if you don't work at a company you shouldn't play on the company team.

Why not? (I ask this in hopes of being persuaded, not to defend a position.)

A different take on it is that the schools shouldn't advertise them as student-athletes that are there on "scholarships" (scare quotes because taking a fake class isn't very scholarly).

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#16

Post by rrrx3 »

evanriley wrote: post #10
w1ntermute wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably happening at a lot of other universities with big sports programs. UNC just happened to get caught.

Oh, its probably happening at most universities. I went to N.C. State and would be surprised if it WASN'T happening there too. I assume any school which gets a amount of money from their sports program would have something similar to UNC.

I also went to NC State, and I'm pretty sure that there's no department dedicated to this type of institutional corruption.

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#17

Post by dragonwriter »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure; but they shouldn't be playing on a college team. As in, if you don't work at a company you shouldn't play on the company team.

Why not? (I ask this in hopes of being persuaded, not to defend a position.)

Colleges are academic institutions. If you want to be semi-pro athlete rather than a student-athlete, you should join a semi-pro team rather than an academic institution.

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#18

Post by cellis »

dragonwriter wrote: post #11
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #5

Why is every semi-pro athlete expected to get a decent GPA in order to play on a university's football team? It's a completely different skillset. I don't blame players for ditching classes to pursue their dreams. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's the same drive as an entrepreneur's: to test yourself, to excel. It's just a different context. They are adults. If, as adults, they choose not to pursue academic studies,…

> Why is every semi-pro athlete expected to get a decent GPA in order to play on a university's football team? Because there are semi-pro teams and university teams, and the two things are not the same thing. > If, as adults, they choose not to pursue academic studies, and instead choose to focus all of their energy on sports, then they should be allowed to do that without putting their sports career at risk. Sure, a…

I disagree. Playing sports at the highest levels is an academic activity, it's just not recognized as an academic activity today. You definitely have to study, recognize patterns, solve problems, etc. Just not so much reading books and writing papers.

Re: U.N.C. Investigation Reveals ‘Shadow Curriculum’ to Help Athletes

#19

Post by droopyEyelids »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure; but they shouldn't be playing on a college team. As in, if you don't work at a company you shouldn't play on the company team.

Why not? (I ask this in hopes of being persuaded, not to defend a position.)

You're questioning the fundamental purpose of an institution in such a way that it's hard to answer. Why shouldn't universities also run all sorts of other businesses, and then make money from their student consultants?

Because the institution of a university exists to provide an academic education that will help them function in the world after school. Because offering a degree in Football would be more predatory than most for-profit colleges Audio Engineer courses.

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