Mr. Macwood-Certainly all the benefits you speak of that these young people acquire could be acquired just as easily at U of cincinnatti as Harvard.  


I also am disturbed about your view of "pat's climate".  It seems Pat's climate is one of equal oppurtunity and fairness based on individual skill sets, not seperate lunch counters.  You are doing his beliefs a disservice and you are doing Mr. Willingham a disservice.  Are you familiar with his background including his educational achievent which was so substandard he would not have attended Mich St. if someone had not given him a chance?  If Mr. Willingham is the product of this system you admire, he is a shining example of the good it does, but it also shows that some will always look at others differently as long as a race/based affirmative action system is in place.

I am glad I learned on a much earlier post that according to Mr. Moriarty it was highly unlikely that a qualified student would not be admitted to the college of their choice because of the admittance of people with substandard quailifications. I will sleep a lot easier this evening knowing this mathmetical improbability.

Tom MacWood,

It's simple, if you want to educate individuals from disadvantaged backrounds, have the Universities take them in under a special education program, but don't tie it in to athletics.

If an individual from a disadvantaged backround wants an education, and has shown a propensity toward learning, take them into that special educational program, not the athletic program, for the moment you take them into the athletic program, you have redirected their focus from education to athletics, diverting their goal, and diluting the hours necessary for a disadvantaged kid try to get up to speed academically, and excell at the college level.

If that student wants to play intramural sports, fine, let them.
That way they can get the benefits of an educational process directly focused on helping them, and at the same time they can participate in sports, and other normal student activities.

You need your concept in order to fuel the engine of your sports teams, I don't.

If college athletics reverted to a more amateur nature, more athletes, who wanted to, would get an education.

Now, If you want 300 students out of the entire population of the nation's graduating class to go on to the NBA and NFL, then your priorities with respect to the mission of a college or university are misguided.

 Pat, I didn't know you were a North Dakota fan.  Bison Rule!!!

oh yeah, BTW
 Final  
 Michigan (5)   27  
 Oregon  (22)   31

 

 

My cousin is running around the house right this moment with a big smile on his face yelling and screaming to bring on the Trojans!

 LOL.  And if someone read that quote and didn't know the Trojans were a footbal team (debatable), it would be even funnier.

Tom MacWood,

You seem to be under the impression that I endorse the admissions policy that let Randy Moss in the front door,
I don't.  I also don't endorse and admissions policy at ND or any other school that recruits and enrolls a hoodlum or criminal element.

I don't care if certain individuals wouldn't have gotten admited, other disavantaged students would have in their place, and the system as a whole would be far better.

Why do I have to cater to the disadvantaged student/athlete to the exclusion of the disadvantaged student/student.

When you tie admissions to athletic ability while lowering admissions standards you immediately corrupt the system.  And, that's what you have today.

Let's take a school in the inner city of Chicago, Cleveland or New York, a school deemed to be populated by disadvantaged kids.  Why not admit those students ranked in the top of their class, academically, rather than those students who are good athletes.  Why deprive disadvantaged kids who work hard on their studies, who have a quest for learning, the opportunity to further their education, for the benefit of a kid who can throw a ball through a hoop or to a receiver ?

What you're missing is the need to de-emphasize athletics.

Disadvantaged kids should be taught to look up to those from their ranks that succeeded in becoming productive citizens, doctors, lawyers and the like, not basketball stars with a limited shelf life in their profession.

You must have also missed my earlier post whereby I stated that the States needed to do a better job at educating kids at the pre-college level.

But, if the emphasis is on athletics, and the focus on the success of one athlete in a million, the educational system will never get fixed.

You're probably to young to remember a story that was told years ago, about an athlete that had a successful career in the NFL.  While in college, at the begining of a semester, the professor indicated that he hadn't received the paper/project from this player, a scholarship and star athlete at a major University.
The player responded, (insert name) don't do no homework.

The implication was, he was there to play football, not receive an education, and sadly, that is the rule not the exception at most schools, and that needs to change.

To repeat my proposal, it you take the academic achievers amongst the disadvantaged kids rather then the athletes, it will benefit those kids who worked for it and deserve an education and send a signal to the athlete that he needs to work on academics as well as pass drills.

The reality of our educational system is that it's been on the downhill for some time, with college graduates not knowing the names and locations of State Capitals.  And without the benefit of a calculator many couldn't multiply or divide.

The system needs to be overhauled and restructured.
You want to preserve a status quo that has produced abuses, mediocrity and worse.

"Tivo or VCR."  I'm such a Ryder Cup junkie I just dropped $600 on a DVD recorder with hard drive so I can tape the singles matches Sunday 9/19 which will be on while I'm flying home from Portland.  Maybe I can program in a few good football games too!

Dave

Schools like Northwestern always used to at least have one political refugee/exhange student from Lower Slobovia who was studying for a PHD in nanotechnological sociology but who also played soccer and could "keek a touchdown!!!" from time to time to hold the football factories of the (mid) Western world to 49-6 or so.

Say it ain't so that you've got the studs now but can't make the extra points!