While watching NCAA Basketball a while ago this evening, I was struck by the number of players who have been declared “academically ineligible” for upcoming NCAA football bowl games, and who therefore will not be playing.
Without doing any research at all, I’d surmise this is some NCAA final inspection rule prior to the football extravaganza about to unfold. If that’s the case, why?
Let’s just drop the pretense. Many college athletes are in college for one reason only: To get drafted by a professional team and sign a contract. That can be a tall mountain to climb. But let’s not delude ourselves that a college athlete’s indoctrination in some liberal arts program is why they’re really in college from the git-go. These guys just didn’t dumb up over the last week or so, yet they were allowed to play all season. Now that the moment has come for them to showcase their talents on the gridiron and possibly become gainfully employed by an NFL franchise, they’re now academically ineligible? Football fans don’t buy tickets to a differential equation solving contest; the NCAA should understand this, and let the athletes compete.
-k-
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