High profile college basketball coaches make millions of dollars per year. They are paid by the universities and are on the faculty as educators. After all, college campuses are where young men and women go to get an education…..at least most of them do.
Most university coaches and their assistants are dedicated to the principal of education first. Most of them. For others their number one priority is to win games, no matter what. If padding the grades of an important member of the basketball team when the team has a good shot at the Big Dance in March, that’s what they do.
Most universities do insist that their student athletes do get a quality education while attending college. Tutors can be hired. Extra time allowed. But the educational requirements will be the same for the athletes as for all the other students on campus.
Sad to say that not all of our institutions of higher learning espouse those same standards when it comes to their student athletes. They are special. They are pampered. They are offered courses to pad their grade averages for which they do not even have to attend the classes in order to receive a passing grade.
Unfortunately, this practice extends to some of the best known and highly respected universities in the land. Take for instance the recent revelations at the University of North Carolina, one of the premier college basketball programs in the country. And yet, now we read that many of their student athletes somehow benefited, for the short term at least, from academic leniency while in college.
The question is who benefited most from the falsified grade point averages, the student, or the university? Sure they kid got his degree to hang on the wall, but, did he really get the quality of education available at his university? Or did he even care?
Because of the one and done policy adapted by the NBA, a player has a much better chance of playing professional basketball if they put their skills on display competing for some big university. The higher profile the school, the more likely that the player gets noticed.
Many of these players are only at the university in the first place because it is the most logical stepping stone to the NBA and the big bucks. Many take full advantage of the educational opportunities afforded them while at the university, but many others could care less about the class work and the grades. They are there to play basketball, and if someone shows them an easy path through academia they will follow that path in a heartbeat.
