What's Wrong With College Sports

Every day I find myself disliking major college sports more and more. Major football and basketball programs have become cesspools of corruption and broken promises. It starts with the funding of the whole damned thing.

Boosters are everything to these two cash cow sports; the donations of the boosters are what keep these programs on budget, allowing for the profit by the school. These people only care about wins and final rankings. They could care less about the actual players. If a player isn't playing well but acing all of his classes, take him out; if a player plays excellent but can barely read, no big deal. Colleges are not the minor leagues, they are academic institutions where learning is the top priority, not a football score.

The thing that really disgusts me is the coaches. Coaches like Mark Mangio, formerly of Kansas, or Jim Leavitt, formerly of University of South Florida, whose heads are so big (literally in Mangio's case) and egos so inflated they think they can abuse players and get away with it. Jim Leavitt is actually suing USF because they fired him; what an ass. I can't stand coaches like Pete Carroll, Lane Kiffin, or John Calipari who laugh at the rules and regulations of the NCAA then leave right before the shit hits the fan. Well, in Kiffin's case he jumped from one sinking ship to the next. Coaches like Nick Saban, Rich Rodriguez, and Bobby Petrino, they get to make all these promises to recruits, getting them to commit to their programs, then leave as soon as the money's good somewhere else. Disgusting.

The type of coach I hate the most are the Mack Brown types (Calipari is in this boat too, along with the Saban class, so I think he's the ultimate scumbag coach). These coaches are ultimately failures in my eyes. They sacrifice their players' futures for W's. This is proof enough for me that Texas had no business in the championship game. The number one mission of every college and university is to educate. Many major college sports programs fall woefully short in this aspect. The coaches lure the players there with promises of preparation for the next level. This is wholly unrealistic for a vast majority of scholarship athletes; like the NCAA commercial says: "we will be going pro in something else." Another incentive is the lack of academic commitment at schools. Places like Florida State, Texas, Georgia, they all have massive academic support systems for their athletes. They have special classes for athletes, special majors for athletes, special tutors (read test takers) for athletes. All in all these institutions are failing their students by allowing this to pass. The athletes are in no way prepared for getting a job after sports. What is someone going to do with a major in recreation and leisure? Is that seriously a major? Are some of the courses 345 Platform Wars: N64 vs PS1, 395: Seminar on the History of the Master Chief, 400: Advanced Pick-Up Basketball? It is despicable that the NCAA allows this to continue.

The real victims in all of this, as you no doubtedly guessed, are the players. They make millions for the universities and receive almost nothing in return. Sure there are some who only could get to college because of basketball and once there pick a real major, study hard, and earn every penny of the scholarship they're granted. Yes there are some how major in video game studies but go on to make millions in the pros. But so many are being misled and in the end see nothing of the hard work they put into practices, games, and off-season workouts. What's even more perturbing is the nature of their scholarships. If a new coach comes in and doesn't like you, sorry you can't go to school here anymore. If you get hurt and can no longer play, the bill will be sent your parents. If you decide that your athletic commitment is seriously jeopardizing your academics (because that is the priority in going to college, the classroom), better take out a loan to pay for it. Essentially these "student-athletes" are brought in as unpaid workers. There has to be some solution to right these wrongs. Guarantee scholarships, set up trusts for each athlete that they can only get if they graduate, instead of joke majors have more vocational majors for those who cannot handle an academic discipline.

All in all the major college sports situation in this country has completely failed. It glorifies ego-maniacal coaches who laugh in the face of not only their employers, but the governing body. Schools make millions of off the players. And the players themselves are the victims of all this. They put in the blood, sweat, and tears, the long hours in the weight room, the wind sprints, the summer practices. What do they get in reward? For the most part they are completely unprepared for life after sports. All too often the system fails them.