DY_nasty said:
I roll my eyes because I'm one of the athletes thats been stuck with a bill.
Those 20-25 hours that you have to put into living expenses is time that athletes are putting into their job - a job that isn't all that secure and doesn't provide more than the most basic of living expenses. If you actually eat like a man who has two-a-days, then odds are you won't be able to eat on just what the school gives you. You're going to need outside support. The irony of that is many student athletes are the ones that are doing the supporting of their families. A lot of players aren't even allowed to get actual part-time jobs - the ones that are provided by the school are alumns are usually bogus too (ie we put your name down, and you get paid on the side - and if anyone finds you, you alone get screwed). And don't get injured... DON'T - because the lengths that schools go to make sure that you don't seek healthcare outside of their own networks is borderline criminal.
All this so that a new library can get built and the players who attracted the applicants and generated the revenue won't have their name on it. The students went on to become doctors and lawyers aren't the ones that built Miami University into what it is today.
And the overwhelming majority of NBA rookies are looked after. There is no opening orientation and prep seminar when you're getting off the plane in Greece. There's no player development coach who's tasked with personally looking out for you. There's no FO thats in touch with your family. Of course guys are going to fall off the track, but no system is perfect, but its still much better than a high school kid taking a year long trip to Europe by himself.
Most of what your saying is 'guys should know better than to do x and y and expect not to be met with consequences - they should be grateful for the opportunity', and in some cases that makes sense, but for the overwhelming majority its just large institutions encouraging, supporting, and enabling in a system where they have relatively no liability while receiving 99% of the benefits.
No support? Jennings team found his mum a job, gave her classes in the language (i'm not sure she kept the job) put his brother up in one of their best private schools, and found his housing and all that. There's support over there the same way there is here, if you want it the team will make it happen. And he got paid on top of it. What more could a first year kid want?
You got left with a bill, was it over 10k for one years education? because that was my bill, just for the tuition, not for the books, fuel, my food (i had to practically live on campus for the last 18months to get out with the grades i did), or for my entertainment. I'm not belittling you or your acomplishments (you've got to be a decent athlete to even make it that far). But i will not in anyway accept that if you want to, you can get more out of that experience than anyone else, and i will not feel sorry for anyone in that situation at all. You accept a scholarship, you know whats expected.
I knew several honours students who were on PARTIAL scholarships who had to spend hours each week (15 or so) helping their lecturer with his research. The reasearch was into concurrent storage on multiple drives over multiple locations spread across a network that the university was given millions for. It was from microsoft, that tech is in use today in their server environment. Those students didn't get any money from it, only on a partial scholarship, and still had every single everyday expense, and an honors workload. But it certainly would never have been ok them to cheat on a test because if was ok because they worked on the grant that brought in money.
Those guys also weren't running around deciding which one of their 4 girlfriends they were going to fuck that night.
Am i saying that its' right that the students don't get a cut of the NCAA money or the money the college makes off the back of them? Hell no, they most definitely should.
Am i saying that it's right that all the colleges exploit the living hell out of these programs? no.
Am i saying that large portions of the whole system are shady? No. The whole things fucked.
What i am saying is that everyone in those programs are on scholorships, what you do in that program with that oportunity is entirely up to you. You're being given a chance most people wont ever have, so to hear people whinge and bitch about the "poor student athlete" makes a mockery of everyone else who has busted their ass in university and come out the other side.
"Oh but he didnt want to be there", then don't go there.
"Oh but it's ok he cheated, he didn't want to be there" then don't go there.
"Its ok he cheated, he brought in money for libraries and buildings" This is the only line i can't really defend, the upside probably out weighs the downside, one guy cheating versus increased resources for all. It still doesn't make cheating right.
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