The NCAA News - Comment
October 21, 1996
The Faculty Voice -- Athletes turning pro and other abominations
BY GARY R. ROBERTS
Tulane University
There has been much anguish expressed in the last couple of years over the increasing number of star college athletes, especially in men's basketball, who are leaving college before they exhaust their four years of eligibility in order to pursue a professional career.
While there is no doubt that some of these athletes are jumping into the pros before they should, my own sense is that the vast majority are making an intelligent choice that is in their own best interests. Thus, while I believe the NCAA and its member schools should create mechanisms to educate their star athletes about the pros and cons of coming out early, and should provide incentives for all athletes to want to complete their degrees, there should be no effort made to adopt rules or create artificial impediments to athletes making their own choices about what course their lives should follow.
The only objections I have heard expressed to allowing athletes to turn pro early are twofold: (1) that it disrupts team planning and efforts to recruit in a predictable and organized manner and (2) that it lets some athletes make a bad choice to leave school when in the long run finishing their education would be better for them than playing pro ball.
To me, the first argument is a nonstarter, and the second, while having some legitimacy, does not justify a blanket effort to bar or deter young people from pursuing their careers when they believe it the right thing for them to do.
As for the argument about disrupting teams and recruiting (which, frankly, I cynically suspect is the real reason so many coaches and college officials want to stop this trend), we should not adopt rules or take actions that deprive student-athletes of the right to make their own decisions or do what they believe is in their best interests in order to make coaches' jobs easier or teams more successful.
This is simply not compelling. It is true that allowing people to make choices that affect
their own lives permits them to make bad decisions on occasion, but it is unreasonably arrogant and paternalistic to argue that such critical life decisions should be made for these athletes by the very people who have so much to gain by keeping them in the system as long as possible.
Of course, some do leave early to try their luck in the pros and discover that the decision was a mistake. My own sense is that far more of those who elect to leave early in basketball and football are making an intelligent and correct decision for them, while most who leave early in baseball are not.
But who are we to make that judgment for these young men? I do think we have an obligation to provide them with as much information as possible about the lifetime advantages of obtaining a college degree, as well as about their chances of succeeding and their likely lifetime earnings in pro sports and how those chances and earnings are affected by turning pro a year or two early.
We also have an obligation to provide these athletes with access to people who can provide useful input in helping them to make the decision, including professional scouts, team executives, union representatives and reputable agents (not just the sleaze bags who sneak around our campuses filling the kids' heads with nonsense).
But having given the athletes all of the useful information and access, the decision must be theirs. It's their lives.
Gary R. Roberts is faculty athletics representative at Tulane University, where he is vice-dean of the law school.
Letter to the Editor -- Solution may be worse than the problem
A lot has been said and written in recent years claiming that college athletes are being "used" until their eligibility has been exhausted, then abandoned to face the cruel world without a degree.
The NCAA and its members have been shamed by the news media to the point that we, in our effort to demonstrate our purity, have overreacted to the extent that we have figuratively raped thousands of conscientious student-athletes who, although scholastically above average, will never fulfill their dream of participating in athletics and earning their degree at the Division I
level.
What we have done with Division I initial-eligibility requirements could be compared to a surgeon amputating at the hip in order to alleviate an ingrown toenail. There will always be some academically lazy kids who will compete in athletics but fail to take advantage of the free college education offered them because of their athletics abilities. No amount of legislation will eliminate all of them.
Almost 200 years ago, Tulane University's first president, William Preston Johnston, said: "We do not profess to take worthless, idle or untrained lads and convert them into saints and scholars by some sort of hocus-pocus. The student must do his part. We surround him with the best moral influences, extend to him extraordinary facilities for improvement, and give him the help of an able, learned and enthusiastic faculty. The rest he must do himself."
As Forrest Gump might say, "Responsibility belongs where responsibility lies."
Dennis Cox
Director of Compliance
and Special Services
Northwestern State University
Opinions -- Soccer coaches react to professional development plan
Reaction gathered by Gannett News Service to "Project 40," a Major League Soccer-U.S. Soccer plan to take the top 40 players aged 18 and 19 into training in January and later offer 30 of them professional contracts:
Jerry Yeagley, men's soccer coach
Indiana University, Bloomington
"No one was contacted in the college community. Hopefully they would involve us. I would like to see the college coaches have more input. The concept is great and I support it wholeheartedly because it provides an alternative to the high-school senior. However, until the nuts and bolts of the plan are clearly spelled out, a lot of high-school graduates should wait and see.
"For some that are not academically motivated, it's good, but I don't agree that 90 to 95 percent will choose that route. If these kids are in fact going to be with an (MLS) team, that's wonderful, but if they are going to be with a USISL team, that's a different story."
Joe Morrone, men's soccer coach
University of Connecticut
"The fact is the colleges are not in business to establish a farm system for the pros, but still we do a pretty good job.
"To knock college coaches when we're the only ones providing opportunity for kids of that (caliber) is absurd. If it weren't for the colleges, who would have been developing young players?"
George Gelnovatch, men's soccer coach
University of Virginia
"In principle, I'm in favor of it as a developmental stage. What they're overstating is the way things are in this country. Most kids and parents dream about going to college. I think 10 players (passing up college for the pros) would be a lot. It's probably closer to five."
Mark Berson, men's soccer coach
University of South Carolina, Columbia
"Anything that gives the soccer player another option is great. It's up to each player to make his own decision. But I don't think it's an automatic. It will be the right choice for some. For others it will be the wrong choice. For some, it will be a very difficult decision."
Schellas Hyndman, men's soccer coach
Southern Methodist: University
"I have mixed emotions because I know where (national coach) Steve Sampson and (MLS) are coming from trying to get the best players at the youngest age, but America is not Europe or South America.
"Our whole educational system is different. You're going against the whole structure of sports in this country. What happens (to the kids) if they don't pan out? I think (Project 40) undervalues what we've done. There's a lot to be said for the maturity of kids."
AGGRESSION
J. Morrow, professor
Iona College
The New York Times
"From a pro team management's position, you want your players to have a high aggression level. You don't want a docile type of guy because the aggression really helps a player's focus and competitive instincts.
"In society in general, it's not a good thing to have such high levels. An argument starts, say, with your wife, and it gets up to that heated level and instead of pulling back or maybe taking a walk, you just react to it.
"That's what happens in sports. That's very functional. Analysis causes paralysis. In sports you practice repetition, repetition, repetition, so you will act reflexively. That's exactly what you want....
"The bottom line (is that) those characteristics that make you successful in pro sports are the very same characteristics that could potentially be problematic in society."
NCAA LEGISLATION
Editorial
Chicago Tribune
"It isn't hard to come up with a list of things wrong with big-time collegiate sports -- starting with low graduation rates, proceeding through excessive demands on teenage kids and ending up with schools that shrug off serious crimes by star athletes.
"But no one would include on the list a football player majoring in theater at a well-regarded school getting a bit part in a movie over the summer to gain some experience in his intended profession.
"That scenario describes Northwestern University running back Darnell Autry, an aspiring actor who wanted to cap last year's Rose Bowl season with a small, unpaid role in a Hollywood thriller, 'The 18th Angel.'
"Amazingly, though, the NCAA threatened to strip Autry of his football eligibility if he accepted the offer. Only after he sued and got a favorable order from a Cook County Circuit Court judge did the NCAA relent.
"To its credit, the association now realizes it made a mistake, which it is trying to correct. 'I don't think there was one person who didn't hear about the Autry situation and have a knee-jerk reaction of, "Are we crazy? What are we doing?'' ' said Chris Plonsky of the University of Texas at Austin, who heads the NCAA Communications Committee.
"Accordingly, the NCAA Council has proposed a change in its bylaws that would allow student-athletes to appear in film and TV roles and write articles for newspapers and magazines -- and to be paid the going rate for such work.
"That would help not only Autry but others, including the Florida athlete who got in trouble for writing restaurant reviews for his school paper. The proposal is expected to be approved in January.
"The point of the rule was to keep student-athletes from exploiting their celebrity status for profit. But it was obviously too broad to achieve that purpose without impeding legitimate undertakings. The proposed change would still ban commercial endorsements, which seems more to the point.
"One criticism of intercollegiate sports is that they supplant the larger educational experiences college is supposed to offer. What sports-minded schools need is more kids like Autry who regard football as a game, not a life. The proposed change would be a boon to them and to higher learning in general."
TURNING PRO EARLY
Jermaine O'Neal, basketball player
Eau Claire High School, Columbia, South Carolina
The Boston Globe
"I wouldn't recommend the NBA for anyone coming out of high school. There's a lot of pressure on you both mentally and physically. You have all these things to worry about now, things like what you're going to do with your money and who you have for an agent. Those are things a 17-year-old kid shouldn't have to worry about."
About how the NBA has overtaken college as the preferred basketball topic of conversation among high-school stars:
"That's all they talk about now. That's all they're thinking about. What's going to stop it is when a kid can't do it. It's either going to take a person to fail or someone from the league to step in and say, 'No more high-school kids.' But if they do well, it's not going to stop."
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