10/29/13: In the Oregonian:
I remember walking in from fall camp practice and talking to my teammates about how similar our lives were to the TV series Spartacus. We were slaves. We were paid enough to live, eat, and train… And nothing more. We went out on the field where we were broken down physically and mentally every day, only to wake up and do it again on the next. On the outside, spectators placed bets and objectified us. They put us on pedestals and worshipped us for a short time, but only as long as we were winning. In the end, we were just a bunch of dumbass (racial slur) for the owners to whip, and the rich to bet on.
“…. talking to my teammates about how similar our lives were to the TV series Spartacus.”
Uh, right.
So is Mr. Anon, who apparently never really sat his butt in a typical fan section, a real footballer or some dejected OLive writer who got laid off and is looking for some cheap thrills? He sent this to Canzano and not to the UO’s PR fanboy? Har, har, har.
Of course, a slave can’t quit and walk away, a subtle difference that alludes our student athlete.
Perhaps we should move to a model where the student athletes can choose between a scholarship
(and free education) or a stipend for the same amount. Let IQ sort the system, for what does a
transcript full of ‘C’s and ‘D’s mean as a measure of education.
Apparently the difference between “alludes” and “eludes” eludes you.
But a football player can’t walk away if they want to play professionally. This is the crux of the problem.
In every other sport there is a path to the pro league which doesn’t require playing in college. Due to (almost certainly illegal) collusion between the NCAA and the NFL, it impossible to play as a pro without first playing for a college team. Both hockey and baseball are great examples of what a system should look like. If a player *wants* to get a college education, they can play as a student athlete. If they don’t (or frankly can’t) they just go straight into development leagues and get paid for their efforts.
Football needs a lot more bodies to field a team than most sports, and the NFL and NCAA have put together a very profitable system for themselves which guarantees very high revenues in the farm system (college) with a steady stream of recruits and avoids the liability of having actual employees who might want to be paid or (god forbid) be insured against injury.
Athletes can’t move from one school to another without NCAA approval, if they want to get a get an “athletics scholarship”:
From the NCAA site: “However, in order to receive an athletics scholarship at another school, a student-athlete must receive permission to contact another school, in writing, from the initial school. This rule applies to all student-athletes, whether or not they are on scholarship at the initial school.”
Not quite slavery, but close. Imagine if they tried imposing this rule on coaches or AD’s!
Pretty damn close, yes. That’s on us, though. If faculty don’t push on this, the slave owners sure won’t change anything.
The academics at UO have really gone downhill.
No they haven’t. Gottfredson told me that we were among the best public institutions in the world.