Holland offers strategy to plug the dyke

Terry Holland, former University of Virginia basketball coach and current athletic director at East Carolina University, is one of my favorite people working in college athletics. Not only does he have a deep, thoughtful understanding of the issues, but he's not afraid to speak his mind.

I applaud the NCAA's efforts to reform the landscape of college athletics. But as Terry points out in an article in The Daily Reflect there is an important overlooked element:

Setting a goal of 80 percent graduation rates without addressing the missed class time created by regular season, conference and NCAA events does not make sense to me. How can our athletes believe that the NCAA (or any of us who are the NCAA) truly cares about academics when NCAA Championships and many other events are scheduled during the students' classes, their exam periods and even during their graduation ceremonies?

Of course, the kind of reform Terry is talking about involves leaving money offered by television on the table.

Comments

[Dan]

The goal of NCAA academic reform is noble, but it lacks substance. Success of this model is predicated on every single individual working at an NCAA institution not doing anything to compromise the academic integrity of its student athletes. Unfortunately history suggests that some (too many???) working in college athletics do cut corners in order to keep athletes eligible and win more games.

[Pete Steinman]

Great blog. Holland points out the obvious tension between college athletics and, uh, college. Which brings up the much debated question, "Does Baseball have it right, with the minor leagues?" Of course, I'm as avid an NCAA hoops fan as the next guy, particularly when Maryland makes the Tournament, but is it compromising a
university's main mission to satisfy the networks, advertisers, and ultimately fans, insatiable appetite for sports entertainment really worth it?

I think the most ludicrous thing in sports right now is televising high school basketball, which can only exacerbate the already deplorable exploitation of young men, and women, on which so-called coaches attempt to foist careers.