More Worthless Paper

So multiple college graduates have been complaining for the past half decade that their college degree is barely worth the paper it is printed on.  Degrees in the humanities just don't pay in the professional world the way they once did, but according to recent news reports, the University of North Carolina has really diluted the value of the paper they issue.

It seems, UNC hired tutors to run classes that did not meet, where student athletes would write a single paper to qualify for grades.  This text is from one athlete in an African American studies program:

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the  white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. “Let me have those front seats” said the driver. She didn’t get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. “I’m going to have you arrested,” said the driver. “You may do that,” Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them “why do you all push us around?” The police officer replied and said “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.

The text illustrates the concern.  This could have been written by a sixth grader, though I would expect more of my fifth grader, yet a college football player shows that he is almost unable to use his own language.  I guess he knew how to block attacking linebackers, but it appears he can barely complete a sentence.

So, I am tempted to ask the NCAA: is this what student athletics is about?  I keep hearing that students on athletic scholarships are students first and this is why college players should not be paid - a premise I tend to agree with - but if the NCAA doesn't come down hard on UNC (and other programs playing the same academic games) they will lose me.  Quickly.

For years, I have said college athletics is either a great time for the player or at worst an internship for the pro level, but if this is the level of academics allowed to go on, no thanks.  My son wants to play baseball for a Division I school, but these type stories worry me completely.

Clean your house up and quickly or you are going to lose your house from players suits to unionize.  The NCAA can say they will take the issue to the Supreme Court, but when you have situations like this what is there to defend?