Quality Is Job 1 Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Someone asked which would be preferable: a program which wins 10 games per year and graduates 80 percent of its players or a program which wins 20 games per year and graduates 20 percent of its players. I believe it's very possible to both win and educate. They're not mutually exclusive pursuits (I understand the poster concedes that). However, for the sake of discussion, let's stipulate that you can have only one or the other. In that case, I'll buck the trend and say I'd rather have the graduates and the 10 wins. Why? Because it's COLLEGE basketball, not minor-league professional basketball. Colleges and universities must pursue their missions of educating people much more than that of entertaining people. If the NCAA were to eliminate the requirement of education for the athletes and just allow schools to hire athletes for "limited terms" to put on sporting events for the entertainment of boosters and students, then they would essentially be nothing more than competitive franchises, rather than institutions of higher learning (as far as the sporting events are concerned). I don't want that. What's really unacceptable is a program which wins 10 games per year and graduates 20 percent of its players. I'm sure such programs exist. But programs which win 20 games per year and graduate a reasonable number of their students (it needs to be proportionate to the number of overall students that graduate) exist, also. I want SLU to be one of those programs. I know Brad Soderberg aims to graduate 100 percent of his players, but it won't happen in real life. I have a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), but it took me seven-and-a-half years (I sat out one year, making it six-and-a-half years of classes). According to the NCAA method, UMSL can't count me as a graduate -- that's bull! Furthermore, I transferred to UMSL after attending Lake Forest College for a year and a half. According to the NCAA, I would count against LFC in their determination of how many of their students graduate, and that's not fair, either. (FWIW, LFC considers me an alumnus, anyway, and yearly solicits donations from me, though I do not consider myself an alumnus of LFC.) People are people, and changes happen, so no matter who Soderberg recruits and no matter how hard he encourages them to succeed in the classrooms, some will fail to get a degree from SLU. It's definitely a laudable goal, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted October 25, 2003 Share Posted October 25, 2003 Did you have a full ride as LFC (tuition, books, room and board) or were you financing everything? With a scholly, tutors, etc. I don't think the NCAA rules on graduation are as bad as lots of the really picky rules we have been hearing about lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted October 25, 2003 Author Share Posted October 25, 2003 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 (or however you spell that freaking commie's name) With that kind of Sophies choice, I take the Billiken season ticket money, get a dish, and follow the DALLLAS COWBOYS!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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