Stop hypocrisy of athletic scholarships

by HOWARD M. BERLIN

02/20/2001

In a recent speech Myles Brand, president of Indiana University, bemoaned the influence of college athletics at the expense of academics. Much of the human genome project was done at IU, but he received far more mail about firing basketball coach Bobby Knight than congratulating the medical school for its part in cracking the genetic code.

The News Journal ran a story about two student-athletes who sued Drake University, claiming they shouldn't have been ruled academically ineligible because their grade point averages fell below 2.0. The National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed a lower benchmark. They had the chutzpa to fight a school policy to hold students who participate in sports to a higher standard than sub-mediocrity.

In court, they claimed the standard was discriminatory and hurt their chances of becoming professional basketball players. Their lawyers even played the race card by claiming the 2.0 rule had a disproportionate effect on black athletes; three of the four suspended players were black although only two chose to fight in court.

The judge had the good sense to resist these bogus claims and saw nothing wrong with Drake requiring athletes to maintain their studies at a level sufficient to graduate.

Requiring less than a 2.0 average makes a farce of higher education. A 2.0 translates into a grade of C, which is simply average -- or mediocre in blunt terms. Students should be encouraged to aim higher. Grades lower than this simply are not acceptable for college work.

These two episodes caused me to think again how distorted athletic scholarships have become. Along with the embarrassing number of high school graduates who enter college requiring remedial courses to do the work, we see more athletes in major colleges being declared academically ineligible. Such was the case during the football bowl games a month ago.

Without their athletic talents, I would guess that many of these students would not have been able to gain college admission on academic terms alone -- unlike the vast majority of students who apply. Yes, college admissions officers consider the entire student, including hobbies, community service and to some extent race. But athletics should not be the dominant factor. Heavily recruited athletes often cite how they chose a particular school on the basis of its athletic program. That rationale is devoid of the potential academic rewards.

In his speech, Indiana University President Brand cited several shameful statistics. One was that in major college basketball programs, only 34 percent of black athletes graduate within six years. The white students who play at this level don't do much better.

Far too many football and basketball players primarily use college as a place to develop their athletic skills for the professional leagues, with no intention of finishing their studies. Witness the number of players choosing to enter the professional drafts after playing only two or three years at the college level or flunking out.

Several years ago, college coaches decried the NCAA's imposition of a rule requiring students to attain a minimum Scholastic Assessment Test score of 800 -- half of the total 1,600 -- to be eligible to play.

The college and athlete enter into a Faustian bargain; they sell their souls and get something in return. The college usually lowers its standards by granting a questionable student a scholarship, and gets fame and financial rewards when its athletic program is successful. The student-athlete gets a free financial ride and shows off his talent for up to four years with the prospect of getting a professional job.

Institutions of higher education must rethink their priorities and end this hypocrisy by eliminating athletic scholarships. Call them anything else -- freebies, grants, gifts, handouts, salaries -- but don't insult the rest of us by implying that jocks are being rewarded on the basis of their academic scholarship. Far too many of these men and women are anything but scholars.

Howard M. Berlin, of Wilmington, has taught at the college and graduate school levels for more than 17 years.