Should NCAA Academic Standards Increase?
We all know that sports at the college level can provide us with a sense of pride for our almamater and even cause increases in enrollment, however do the Academic standards in place really benefit society as a whole? I pose this question because according to NCAA.com, students must have completed 24 semester hours or 36 quarterly hours with a 1.8 GPA going into their sophomore year of college. The students must achieve benchmarks of 40, 60, and 80 percent of their degree requirements before the starts of their third, fourth, and fifth years respectfully. David Knight a member of the Academic Consultants states, "The current rules emphasize eligibility more than they do academic achievement". It seems as though other pushes by the NCAA are in the direction opposite that of academic standards. Are academics in college necessary for college athletes? When putting the question in those terms it almost seems obscene that anyone would argue the standards are right. Would you want an ex-football player who never made it to the NFL with a degree in lets say teaching, teaching your kid? Keep in mind that this player statistically will be close to the 1.8 GPA. It seems to be that the benefits to society come up very short in this deal. What do you think? What are society's benefits from graduating C- average students, and allowing them into the work world? does this benefit your personal sports obsession or society? Lets be honest.
1 comment:
The ideas of the comments above seem to encourage free-riding. If the colleges allow the students to blow off academics only so that they can gain profit and private benefits, then they are not taking the social benefit into account. Not every student athlete makes it into the professional level. These students must then get by with what they got out of college, which is usually the bare minimum. It's not that difficult to keep a 1.8 GPA. If thats the best that the student can do, then good for him, for staying eligible. But for those who get by with gifts from professors, skip class for a "sports related excuse," or are just plain too lazy to get better grades, the bar needs to be raised. In an efficient system, we need to eliminate as much free-riding as possible, from the students as well as the institutions.
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