Ohio St backup QB thinks classes are pointless because ‘we ain’t come to play SCHOOL'

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I think many are way over generalizing on this issue. Yes, there are some marginal athletes in D1 that should probably not be admitted, but there are also plenty of academically strong individuals as well. Last I looked, the average GPA across all athletes at the U of M was higher than the student body at large, and I know this to be the case at many Big10 and other DI institutions as well.

It's just that when a athlete makes a dumb-ass remark, like the one made in this instance, the media pounces on it.
 


Gopherprof said:
Well *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#. I actually thought to myself, "I'll probably end up insulting someone from Zimbabwe".
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To continue this line of thought, I lived in rural Zimbabwe for six months in 2011. I actually helped out teaching in a school at the hospital compound where we were staying. The education system of Zimbabwe was once held up as a "jewel" of Africa, per the UN. However, with the last few years of political strife, food shortages and hyperinflation, the system has crumbled from that high perch. For example, the entire school system was shut down for the entire 2008 year (http://www.ipsnews.net/2008/11/education-zimbabwersquos-school-system-crumbles/). Many schools were abandoned, others continued without the most basic of needs.

Things have improved a bit since 2008, but still are nowhere near where they once were. I could go on and on about the actual lessons and such, but I think this probably enough off-topic rambling for everyone.
 

This kid sounds stupid, but hey, he's a kid.

I'm guessing there weren't a whole lot of us that said, "OH GEE! I'M SO HAPPY TO GO SIT IN A THREE-HOUR LECTURE CLASS TODAY! YESSSSSS!"

This kid's problem was that he said it in public and used broken text message language to do so.
 

emann said:
This kid sounds stupid, but hey, he's a kid.

I'm guessing there weren't a whole lot of us that said, "OH GEE! I'M SO HAPPY TO GO SIT IN A THREE-HOUR LECTURE CLASS TODAY! YESSSSSS!"

This kid's problem was that he said it in public and used broken text message language to do so.
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Well said
 


emann said:
This kid sounds stupid, but hey, he's a kid.

I'm guessing there weren't a whole lot of us that said, "OH GEE! I'M SO HAPPY TO GO SIT IN A THREE-HOUR LECTURE CLASS TODAY! YESSSSSS!"

This kid's problem was that he said it in public and used broken text message language to do so.
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Most kids are stupid in some way. I am thankful I didn't have Twitter when I was younger, as I am sure I would have written some things I might now regret. That being said, almost every other college student is there because of the classes they might not want to attend. There is a BIG difference between not wanting to go to class and seeing class as useless.

The problem I have is not with the dumb kid; my guess is that he is not alone among college athletes in thinking what he thinks. My issue is that he does not understand the implications of saying things like that in a public forum.

I look back at my college athletic experience as something valuable that helped me get where I am today. Unfortunately, this clown gives me and my experience a bad name. He is part of the reason why people view big-time college athletics as a problem that needs to be fixed. My experience balancing football and class was, apparently unlike his, positive and important. Unfortunately, the fools always get a lot more air time than the people who used their educations fruitfully.

The irony is that statements like his encourage people to end the system that provides him with the opportunity to make such statements. He is, in effect, only hurting himself. Hell, if he cared a little more about class he might even understand what irony is.
 

This is an example of why I believe college football (and basketball) should not be a minor league feeder program for their pro sports. They should sponsor their own minor leagues as baseball does. This kid obviously doesn't want to be in school. Meanwhile he occupies a spot at OSU that would better serve an academically-inspired student. We always fret about the lack of opportunity for the kids we label "underprivileged" and thump our chests and feel great about paying for their education through sports that we support. But as with many things, every benefit comes at someone else's expense. In this case, and in cases like this, some kid who deserves to be at OSU or other school is left out. Here's a thought, for every sports scholarship kid who fails to graduate in five years, the school must award an academic scholarship to a deserving student.
 


FanSinceTheFifties said:
This is an example of why I believe college football (and basketball) should not be a minor league feeder program for their pro sports. They should sponsor their own minor leagues as baseball does. This kid obviously doesn't want to be in school. Meanwhile he occupies a spot at OSU that would better serve an academically-inspired student. We always fret about the lack of opportunity for the kids we label "underprivileged" and thump our chests and feel great about paying for their education through sports that we support. But as with many things, every benefit comes at someone else's expense. In this case, and in cases like this, some kid who deserves to be at OSU or other school is left out. Here's a thought, for every sports scholarship kid who fails to graduate in five years, the school must award an academic scholarship to a deserving student.
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What about the kid who doesn't have the NFL talent but wants to get an education. Cardale Jones is just a bad example of the bunch. I don't think the system is as broken as many think. The idiotic tweet is just an easier story to write than the one about the football player who tries to get the most out of his education.
 



GopherInPittsburgh said:
What about the kid who doesn't have the NFL talent but wants to get an education. Cardale Jones is just a bad example of the bunch. I don't think the system is as broken as many think. The idiotic tweet is just an easier story to write than the one about the football player who tries to get the most out of his education.
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The kid who doesn't have NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college football. This is the kid who is being cheated in college football today because his spot is being taken by someone who doesn't want the education but has no alternative to college football as a showcase for his on-the-field talents. The kid who has NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college. Meanwhile, the kid who has the talent but doesn't want the education belongs in a professional minor league. This would greatly clean up dirty recruiting and academic cheating and raise the image of college football.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
The kid who doesn't have NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college football. This is the kid who is being cheated in college football today because his spot is being taken by someone who doesn't want the education but has no alternative to college football as a showcase for his on-the-field talents. The kid who has NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college. Meanwhile, the kid who has the talent but doesn't want the education belongs in a professional minor league. This would greatly clean up dirty recruiting and academic cheating and raise the image of college football.
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This type of motivated "athlete" will never make the big time. Please don't tell me that a 17-18-19 year old kid is mature enough, smart enough, experienced enough to compete at any level of professional football, except maybe for the "Lingerie League".

Of course there are always the pimps of youth who will promise them the world.

We will end up with an influx of uneducated, failed jocks who will push drugs on the street to pay the utility bills.
 

I dispute the assertion that the kids don't have time to do well in school. There are plenty of stories of athletes who redshirt for a year, complete their undergrad in their RS Junior year and are taking graduate classes by the time they are a RS Senior. Look no further than the hockey program, where Nick Bjugstad will be completing his degree in his third year in college, and he had less preparation because he also completed his high school in three years. All of that despite being a big-time, high-performing college athlete in a revenue sport.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I dispute the assertion that the kids don't have time to do well in school. There are plenty of stories of athletes who redshirt for a year, complete their undergrad in their RS Junior year and are taking graduate classes by the time they are a RS Senior. Look no further than the hockey program, where Nick Bjugstad will be completing his degree in his third year in college, and he had less preparation because he also completed his high school in three years. All of that despite being a big-time, high-performing college athlete in a revenue sport.
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Agree 100%... In America we have this ridiculous assumption growing up that the only reason we go to college is to get drunk, high, and laid. Oh, and to get a degree too, but that's an afterthought. The excuse that these kids are "young" and are just being "kids" is ridiculous. At 18, it's time to grow up. NOT act like an animal for the next 4 to 5 years.
 



afurry91 said:
Agree 100%... In America we have this ridiculous assumption growing up that the only reason we go to college is to get drunk, high, and laid. Oh, and to get a degree too, but that's an afterthought. The excuse that these kids are "young" and are just being "kids" is ridiculous. At 18, it's time to grow up. NOT act like an animal for the next 4 to 5 years.
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If anything, athletes should be held to an even higher academic standard because of all the assistance they have available for them at no charge. I find it embarrassing to listen to some athletes giving interviews that can barely string a sentence together, some of these guys have no business being in a place of higher education. I will say that this is NOT everyone that plays sports, in fact it is a small percentage of players, but we all know there are many student athletes that would never be admitted if they couldn't run fast, catch a ball, etc.
 

Restricting college athletics to only the kids that want to be in college would not raise the profile of college athletics. It would lower it, drastically. Most of the better players would play in the alternative minor league system that formed, and most of those who were smart but still good enough to play in this alternative minor league would do so for a chance at the NFL. What is now Division I would essentially become the MIAC.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Restricting college athletics to only the kids that want to be in college would not raise the profile of college athletics. It would lower it, drastically. Most of the better players would play in the alternative minor league system that formed, and most of those who were smart but still good enough to play in this alternative minor league would do so for a chance at the NFL. What is now Division I would essentially become the MIAC.
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Not sure I 100% agree with this. College hockey still has plenty of talent even with Major Juniors available. This may be due to players being able to stay in school after being drafted though.
 

If there was a developmental league that took players who had NFL potential, but didn't want to go to college, it might decrease the caliber of college play, but probably not by much. How many players would this league be able to take? A few hundred players each year make it to NFL training camps, with the draft and free agents.

The biggest impact probably would be with the top college teams, as they would lose players to the D-League. But losing a few players to the D-League wouldn't reduce the caliber of play to MIAC level. And just as not all baseball players go directly to the pros from high school, not all players would choose the D-League. Minor league baseball isn't a life of luxury, I suppose the same would be true of minor league football.

Another potential impact would be TV. Would a D-League draw viewers away from college football? Or would a D-League simply sit in obscurity.
 

Another thing to take in to account, is would a D-league turn college football into college baseball? Nobody cares about it because most of the real talent is in the minors.
 

RodentRampage said:
If there was a developmental league that took players who had NFL potential, but didn't want to go to college, it might decrease the caliber of college play, but probably not by much. How many players would this league be able to take? A few hundred players each year make it to NFL training camps, with the draft and free agents.
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There are roughly 250 players that get drafted each year. Let's be conservative and say that there are at least twice that many who think they can/should be drafted. That means 500 players (at minimum) would be playing at any given time in this new league. You don't think taking the 500 best players out of college football each and every year would create a noticeable difference in quality? Imagine taking the 10 best players off of each of the 50 best teams in the nation. In reality, it would be more like taking the best 20-25 players off teams like Alabama, LSU, USC, Texas, OSU, etc., and filling in with players who would've gone to mid-tier AQ/high-end non-AQ schools otherwise. Saying it would be MIAC-quality is an exaggeration, but the very best college teams would be on par with Big East/Mountain West-quality football. Is that the quality of Division I football you want to watch?

afurry91 said:
Another thing to take in to account, is would a D-league turn college football into college baseball? Nobody cares about it because most of the real talent is in the minors.
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Exactly. The overwhelming majority of sports fans care zero about either college baseball or minor league baseball.
 

College baseball is still pretty big in the south. I took a list of the top college baseball teams by attendance, and there's hardly any northern teams on that list. Attendance isn't really all that high in the minor leagues. It's not true that all of the talented baseball players choose to go into the minor leagues right out of high school, the college route can get you to the major leagues just as easily as can going directly to the minor leagues. The players who go to college just spend less time at the lowest levels of minor leagues, it pretty much all evens out.


http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2011/06/14/2011-division-1-college-baseball-attendance-report/

http://www.ballparkdigest.com/20110...2011-minor-league-baseball-attendance-figures
 

Fuzzy Rumpton said:
Not sure I 100% agree with this. College hockey still has plenty of talent even with Major Juniors available. This may be due to players being able to stay in school after being drafted though.
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I believe drafted players can still play in major juniors.
 

First, we can't assume that all players who thought they had NFL potential would choose the minor leagues. It doesn't happen in baseball, why should we assume that it would happen in football? Secondly, the D-League likely wouldn't take every player who wanted to join the D-League. And there might be a bit of a decrease in the caliber of football, but if what I cared about was seeing the highest level of play, I'd be watching the NFL.
 

RodentRampage said:
First, we can't assume that all players who thought they had NFL potential would choose the minor leagues. It doesn't happen in baseball, why should we assume that it would happen in football?
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Sure it does. Most of the elite baseball players never play college baseball. The only ones that do are guys who didn't get offered enough money to sign out of HS, or late developers like Strasburg who were lucky to get a college scholarship anywhere. You'd still have really good players come out of nowhere in college football too, but they'd be the exception to the rule.

RodentRampage said:
Secondly, the D-League likely wouldn't take every player who wanted to join the D-League.
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No, they wouldn't. If they did, they'd have probably 2,000 players. But 500 seems reasonable (even on the low end), as they'd have to fill out their rosters somehow. A total of 500 players would barely be enough for 7-8 teams.

RodentRampage said:
And there might be a bit of a decrease in the caliber of football, but if what I cared about was seeing the highest level of play, I'd be watching the NFL.
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Fair point.
 



It doesn't look low to me at all. Quite a lot of players make it to the majors after playing in college. College baseball isn't as top-heavy as football is, there are a lot of schools that put players in the majors who could never have a player in the NFL. Dixie State College of Utah (I had never heard of it until now) had two players that played in the majors in the last decade.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
The kid who doesn't have NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college football. This is the kid who is being cheated in college football today because his spot is being taken by someone who doesn't want the education but has no alternative to college football as a showcase for his on-the-field talents. The kid who has NFL talent but wants an education belongs in college. Meanwhile, the kid who has the talent but doesn't want the education belongs in a professional minor league. This would greatly clean up dirty recruiting and academic cheating and raise the image of college football.
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I never understood why the UFL didn't try to become this. They didn't want to be a developmental league, instead they ended up being has-beens and never-will-bes. And now they're teetering on folding.

The sad truth is that almost every college football player thinks they are good enough to play in the NFL. Even the walk-ons. They think the big programs just missed them, they'll prove everyone wrong, etc. Very few have their head on straight enough to realize they'll be going pro in something other than athletics (to paraphrase the NCAA commercial). So if there were an easier route that didn't require even pretending to go to class and would allow players to get paid (even if it was far less than the NFL), I would think most that could would do it.

But if you look at the numbers - right now UFL has 4 teams, but if they had 8 teams times 50 players per team that would be 400 players. Even if it's 100 players per team, that would be 800. But you have to spread that over at least 3 years (since NFL waits until 3 years after HS graduation), so really you're talking 267 kids per year, assuming they all only stay 3 years and they have 100 man rosters (which is highly unlikely). Realistically you're looking at probably 150 kids per year or less.

I think the NCAA would still do just fine with that. It might even create more parity. But it probably wouldn't stop the non-student student-athlete. Not enough kids could get into the D-league.
 


I don't know much about Zimbabwe education, but I do believe that most Midwesterners don't have any idea of the difference in quality of a student education in the near 5 -7 state areas as compared to the average education in the south. I did not take the time to research where Cardele comes from, but the typical student from the Midwest has at least some sense of academia. Unfortunately for this young man, he made a statement for some reason, frustration, effect, or whatever and now has to pay the consequences. Obviously, he might have a coach talking to him about what topics he chooses to tweet on. Unfortunately he comes across as an idiot. My hope for him is he is not.
 

Southoftheriver said:
I don't know much about Zimbabwe education, but I do believe that most Midwesterners don't have any idea of the difference in quality of a student education in the near 5 -7 state areas as compared to the average education in the south. I did not take the time to research where Cardele comes from, but the typical student from the Midwest has at least some sense of academia. Unfortunately for this young man, he made a statement for some reason, frustration, effect, or whatever and now has to pay the consequences. Obviously, he might have a coach talking to him about what topics he chooses to tweet on. Unfortunately he comes across as an idiot. My hope for him is he is not.
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"Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, 'Would an idiot do that?' And if they would, I do not do that thing."
-Dwight (character on The Office)
 

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