Football friendly majors

[abezontar]

What are the NCAA guidelines about what an athlete can major in? Would it be possible to create a sports major wherein the athlete can major in their respective sport? By this I mean could someone take football coaching classes, sports management classes (which would include classes about managing your finances and preparing for your eventual retirement from sports, position classes, sports reporting classes, etc. that would allow them to eventually get a degree in football or basketball. It would be available to any student but geared to athletes. Just a thought I had on the drive home from work and thinking about the players that blew all their millions of dollars on frivlous stuff and were left after an injury with nothing. Comments encouraged.

[leopold]

I believe the athlete can get a degree in any major the school offers, and we all know that there are some pretty chump degrees out there. In other words, If the school OK's it, the NCAA backs it. I know nothing, however, about a sports management degree as we do not offer such coursework.
I would have to say I would be for offering degrees in football and basketball for selected students, in much the same way dancers and musicians can be offered theirs. Northwestern, as good a school as it is, is rumored to have a program for their athletes.
I have always found it hypocritical that an actor can come in to a school (namely ours), study acting exclusively for four years and then head out into a field that has a 99% unemployment rate unqualified for any other work. Don't teachers shriek when this happens to an athlete? Since when is "classical guitar" a broad based liberal arts education?
You can take a football or basketball player, let them have their 20 (or more) hour a week education in their field of endeavor, and then give them a watered-down liberal arts education (much like Chemistry for Liberal Arts) and now you have someone who is qualified to at least teach and coach at the elementary and high school level, and they can stop lying about why they are showing up. I'm not saying cheat, just make it honest and respectable.
Anyway, here's a link about the Vandy AD who is at least trying to create some real standards. Kudos to him.

<A HREF="http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/matt_hayes/20030602.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/matt_hayes/20030602.html</A>

[This message has been edited by leopold (edited 06-02-2003).]

[This message has been edited by leopold (edited 06-02-2003).]

[Charleston Pony]

I'm afraid there is just too much money in big time college athletics today to ever turn the clock back and restore academic integrity.

While many look at the system today and will say the big State U football factories "use" these kids...do they really? So what if they admit someone who doesn't have a chance to graduate? What did that kid's future look like before he was admitted? If the kid develops as a great player, he has a chance to play professionally, in which case the school has helped prepare him for a career. Isn't that what school is all about?

And for those who don't make it and don't accomplish anything else while in school to prepare them for another profession, well, that job selling shoes at the Foot Locker was there for him coming right out of H.S. and it will be there when his eligibility ends.

I think the vast majority of scholarship student athletes make the most of their opportunity and would tell you that attending college helped them in life. For those who are "helped" through the system both in terms of their admission and in keeping them eligible, is that really as great a "crime" as so many people make it out to be?

Professional sports can end this debate by offering minor leagues, like they do in baseball, so any kid who isn't really cut out for school has an option to play his sport for a living.

[EastStang]

Have we changed something for the fine arts school. It used to be that you couldn't pursue that curriculum exclusively until you had completed the humanities curriculum in the University College. I knew a few art majors who flunked out because they could not pass the humanities classes. On the other hand I vaguely remember some athletes were sent to the dance department to get a few credit hours. PX whats the scoop.