March 23, 2006 5:48 PM

Of course, all that money will buy a lot of Philosophy professors, eh?

Tell Nike, Adidas and Reebok to Get Off the Academic Sidelines!

Teams in red failed to meet minimum academic standards as defined by the NCAA. The minimum acceptable academic standard is a 925 Academic Progress Rate, which is roughly equivalent to a 50% graduation rate.

Watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these are EDUCATIONAL institutions at play. While the NCAA and the individuals schools are going to the bank based on the labors of the players, something very important is being minimized…or lost sight of altogether. Of course, you can’t shoot or slam dunk an education, and no one is going to pay top dollar to listen to a philosophy professor discourse on Hegelian ethics.

It would be nice to think that education actually has a place in March Madness, but given the amount of money involved, it’s understandable that learning has taken a back seat to the Almighty Dollar. Schools will argue that their “student-athletes” get an education as their compensation, but it’s certainly a one-sided deal. For one thing, education is hardly the priority in this equation, and the NCAA is making BILLIONS off March Madness. For those of you unclear on the concept, that’s a s—tload of money.

I don’t want to be trying to douse anyone’s fun here; Hell, I enjoy the tournament as much as anyone else. I even won my office’s tournament pool two years ago. Still, it seems only fair that the “student-athletes” who make so much money for the NCAA and their member schools realize some of the financial benefit. While those who run the NCAA might run off at the mouth about the beauty of amateur athletics, anyone with an IQ above single digits understands that there is nothing “amateur” about March Madness. No, in a very real sense, March Madness is little more than the economic exploitation of college students who simply want to play basketball.

A couple hundred years ago, there was a name for this sort of thing. It was called “indentured servitude”.

Game on, eh??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 23, 2006 5:48 PM.

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