Friday, August 10, 2007

WHAT?

This is damn well ridiculous and I am... practically speechless. ME! Speechless. Really, it almost never happens.

I have been trying to catch up with the news I missed yesterday while at home feeling miserable and, of course, with kick off only 22 days away, I am looking at all of the sports sites and blogs. Now I didn't see anything about Steve 'the old ball coach' Spurrier whining about his recruits on any of the websites that I usually read, but I was up to the minute informed thanks to the well-informed blogosphere. According to The Wishbone

" Michael Bowman and Arkee Smith, two members of Spurrier's touted recruiting class of last year, were cleared by the NCAA, but denied by SC's admissions department."

Now I understand that this would annoy Spurrier, but shit happens. Only the shit happened to USC's admission standards and not to Spurrier's recruiting class. Apparently

"In response, the school has created a committee that includes president Andrew Sorensen, athletic director Eric Hyman, professors, coaches and other administrators to discuss the university's special admissions process for athletes"

So instead of working with these young men, maybe suggesting a local juco or tutoring, instead of ensuring that they are ready to begin college, they are going to LOWER THE ADMISSION STANDARDS to get them in. I am, frankly, appalled. And I hope it never happens at the University of Florida. I love college football, and I joke that the only reason we keep Vandy in the SEC is to keep up our GPA, but I truly believe that college is for an education. Extra curricular activities should continue to be extra.

It probably happened in Gainesville (aka TitleTown) when Spurrier was coaching there. The 'net was not quite as prevelant then so we weren't all privy to the intimate details. Maybe learning the details will help us keep this sort of thing from happening in the future.

2 comments:

The Double-U Show said...

I wish I understood the fanaticism behind football in the South. Although football players are generally smarter than most athletes, they still are required to attend college much much more than tennis players, baseball players, and hockey players and there are going to be players that just aren't smart enough. There are 55 guys on every college team so you're BOUND to have some that just don't cut it so sending them to a JuCo would be a great idea. The same goes for regular college kids too. Some just can't hack it in Gainesville or Tempe so they need to go somewhere locally first, get their credits, gain some experience, gain some confidence, and THEN sit in a class with 600 people.

LeftLeaningLady said...

Well I completely understand the fanaticism behind football in the south, but still think the players should be taken care of. (Not paid). My son is 18 and I just helped him register at the local juco this morning, because (as much as I want him to go to UF) I don't want to flush my money down the toilet. And he isn't ready.

Sadly, the players that Spurrier helped get in probably won't end up with their degree and what if they aren't NFL caliber?