Literacy Among Certain College Athletes

[comfortably numb]

This is certainly shocking...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/10306834/north-carolina-tar-heels-investigating-athlete-literacy-claims-chancellor-says

[Truth Detector]

This is certainly shocking...

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...hancellor-says

Just listen to a few post-game interviews and you'll get a pretty good idea.

[Indyknut]

I'm not shocked nor surprised.

[Sea Fury]

Why is this shocking to you?

[Jakester]

Well, you know, it's like, you know, tough for a, you know, student athlete, you know, to attend classes, you know, and make all the, you know, practices and, you know, travel for games, you know.

[exfasteddy]

I, for one, am shocked. I think the reported 4th to 8th grade reading level is way high.

[Taxpayer]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/24411805/unc-stops-research-of-academic-whistleblower-mary-willingham

So, who provided the funding for this research?

It probably wouldn't have needed to be an eight year project in Norman, Oklahoma.

[Davydd]

Just listen to a few post-game interviews and you'll get a pretty good idea.

Yep, and you know they only allow the articulate ones to talk.

[Jakester]

Yep, and you know they only allow the articulate ones to talk.

Hey now...I'm sure they're articulate...their daddy and momma were married before they were born.
Or was that illiterate versus literate?

[Vasserfan]

Wasn't it Gary Anderson in the 80's who got an contract voided because he was illiterate? But he was able to play four years for Lou Holtz at Arkansas.

[Jakester]

Wasn't it Gary Anderson in the 80's who got an contract voided because he was illiterate? But he was able to play four years for Lou Holtz at Arkansas.

He tried.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...ne/MAG1121160/

[don7031]

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Ohio State third-string quarterback Cardale Jones made his feelings about attending classes clear Friday on Twitter.

"Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS," he wrote.

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[FTHurley]

******************

Ohio State third-string quarterback Cardale Jones made his feelings about attending classes clear Friday on Twitter.

"Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS," he wrote.

*********************

I actually agree with him. I think minor league football should be decoupled from college. Baseball players can sign with minor league teams after high school without being required to attend classes, and they even get paid for it.

And I say that as someone who fundamentally believes athletics have a role to play in higher education. I just don't think that role is as a farm system that doesn't have to pay its players.

[Jsieczka]

I would say the bigger problem is "read at a 4th to 8th level", 4th grade would mean part of elementary school, all of junior high, and all of senior high a person could not read at that level which means they could most likely not pass any class. Are places really putting athletics ahead of education in elementary school? At the college level it is a joke at the elementary school level that is sickening.

[Sea Fury]

Hmmm, if only this topic had been discussed here before....I wonder if someone who said that athletes get unreasonable breaks and preferential treatment in school might have been berated for that belief...