"Student-Athletes" and other Fantasies

 In 1972, I started and completed my college career. I was 45 minutes into my first class when I realized that I was not remotely interested in being there. I stood up and walked out of the classroom. I haven't been back. 

Why am I writing this 52 years later? Because college football is starting up over the next couple of weeks. The North Carolina Tarholes football team will be headed to Dublin, Ireland to play a game. Have we run out of suckers in this country to watch semi-literate college athletes perform in this country?

It's time to end the charade. There is no such thing as a "student-athlete" in college. Wait!! Let me qualify that. Outside of the three service academies run by the federal government, there are no "student-athletes". At best, "student-athletes" are on the endangered species list. These people are all in college to play sports. What's the actual graduation rate for student-athletes? What kind of degrees are these people getting if they do graduate?

At what grade level do you think that the average "student-athlete" is capable of reading? How much time a week do they spend in actual academic classes?

For years, the concept of "student-athletes" has been on the critical care list. With the advent of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), it has crossed over to being on life support. College sports teams are simply paid performers who are paid to represent a college or university in a particular sport. They may attend a phys ed class or two. but they aren't real students like I am not a real sports fan.

Like free agents in major league sports, these people don't have any loyalty to a particular team or city or place of higher education. They are there for the money. Many "student-athletes" transfer almost every year to a different university. That's a lot of trouble just to end up with a degree in General Studies. 

There are guys who are getting paid tens of thousands of dollars a year who can't even spell the name of the university where they are playing attending hanging out this semester. What are the actual GPA and graduation rates for these "student-athletes"? 

Do colleges and universities spend more on sports arenas and athletes than they do on the history department? Do football coaches make more money than math teachers? Why can Freddy Football memorize his football playbook but doesn't know what multiplication tables are? Are autographs of athletes written in cursive or printed in block letters? 

The Romans built the Coliseum to keep the populace entertained and distracted. In the United States, we build stadiums to keep the peasants distracted. The peasants can't actually afford to attend the distractions or games as some call them, so they watch them on television at home or at a bar. Only the big money alumni and some lottery winners get game tickets.

I am so old that I remember when we used to talk about "amateur" sports. Today the average college "student-athlete" can't even spell "amateur" and "sports" might be a challenge. 

College sports teams function just like the minor league baseball teams do for Major League Baseball. At least, minor league baseball teams don't pretend to be teaching anything other than sports skills, unlike the NCAA. 

Let's just pack it in and admit that college sports are for professionals not amateurs. Quit wasting our time and money sending those folks to real classes.