Who cares the University of Maryland men?s basketball team was the only squad in the country that didn?t graduate a player within six years of enrolling between 1997 and 2000.
I don?t see why that?s a big deal. Teenagers use their athletic skills to earn free or discounted college educations, colleges use the athletes to win games and generate money, and student-athletes ? still one of the biggest oxymorons in sports ? have a chance to get a degree. Why is it Maryland?s fault ? or any school?s fault ? if a student-athlete doesn?t take advantage of the system?
This isn?t high school, when teachers go out of their way to do everything possible to make sure students pass. I?ve seen a football coach sit next to a star linebacker just so he would complete a homework assignment to regain his athletic eligibility so he could smash the quarterback on game day.
At some point, you have to grow up. Student-athletes have to be held accountable for failing to take advantage of all the luxuries afforded them ? the free meals, the free tutors, the first choice of classes ? and take care of business.
But wait a minute: That?s exactly what many of the Terrapins did. They went to Maryland and majored in professional sports ? the same major pursued by thousands of football and basketball players at colleges across the country.
Want proof? Steve Francis didn?t graduate from Maryland in four years, but at the end of last season, he?s reportedly made more than $65 million playing in the NBA, about $50 million more than Chris Wilcox has made since he was a first-round pick in 2002. How about Juan Dixon? He?s made more than $8 million; Steve Blake, a little more than $3 million. And that?s not even counting other Terrapins such as Byron Mouton or Drew Nicholas, who have made a good living playing overseas.
You know what I call that? Making the most of a “non” degree. The NCAA obviously disagrees. But remember, this is the same governing body that lets conferences schedule football and basketball games that begin past 9 o?clock on school nights just so they can sign a more lucrative television contract.
Guys like Wilcox, Dixon and Blake are some of the smartest entrepreneurs who have ever come out of College Park. They saw an opportunity and took it. Isn?t that how Bill Gates started Microsoft and Ted Turner created his media empire? But if Gates and Turner would have been athletes at Harvard and Brown before they dropped out, the schools would have been penalized.
The NCAA can compile all the data it wants, but it?s all meaningless. If it was really concerned about academics, it would hold the NCAA Tournament in the afternoon so players could attend study hall at night. And bowl games that start at 8 p.m.? Shouldn?t so-called student-athletes be in bed by 11 so they can get a good night?s rest before attending morning classes? Memo to NCAA: You can?t have it both ways.
You can?t tell kids to eat healthy and then take them to fast-food restaurants for every meal and wonder why they?re overweight, just as you can?t tell a kid not to smoke but then make cigarettes so accessible.
The NCAA is so fast to throw all these numbers out there, but I?ll just throw one: six. That?s the number of billions CBS paid the NCAA in 1999 to televise the NCAA Men?s Basketball Tournament for the next 11 years. That?s $545 million a year. Again, I don?t have a degree in business, but something tells me if the NCAA mandated all of its games start before 5 p.m. they wouldn?t get that kind of money. I forgot: How much of the money goes to the players who make the tournament what it is? That would be zero.
When the NCAA seizes an opportunity to make money it?s good business, but when Maryland?s basketball players do it, the school gets singled out.
The only thing the NCAA has done more ridiculous than create the Graduation Success Rate ? the formula used to rank Maryland dead last ? is the Bowl Championship Series formula to determine what teams play in the national championship football game.
The NCAA wants it to appear like it cares, but clearly it doesn?t. Where?s the outrage when many of the top high school baseball players ditch their college plans after they are drafted by the major leagues? Where?s the financial aid to schools who have to cut programs when they no longer can afford them?
But wait, I forgot. This is college sports, where only one number truly matters: the one on the bottom line.
Jon Gallo is the sports editor of The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
