When student athletes break the rules and accept payment, whose fault is it, theirs or the idiotic system’s?

Clemson has a football team that has been to the National Championship three out of the last four years. I just spent the last twelve years living in Chapel Hill, where UNC won three National Basketball Championships.

Think about the schizophrenia we impose on our student athletes. One minute, they’re in the same classes as you and me, living off the same Chick-fil-A student aid. The next, they’re winning National Championships on prime-time TV and being adored by all, wherever they go.

Part of that adoration is that folks want a piece. They want to give their new idols freebies. How on earth is a student athlete– a hiccup away from living at home, a sneeze away from detention at high school– how on earth is that naïve student athlete supposed to know that accepting even a free coffee at the local co-op is likely to destroy his or her career? And why should it?

Students come to university to prepare themselves for a career. Student athletes are also here preparing for a career. What kind of snobbery is it to say that a professional sports career is not a good enough subject in which to major? That’s what this all comes down to: snobbery.

You can play sports, provided you do a “real” major. Why? If it leads to a career, why is it not “real?” And if it becomes real, why shouldn’t student athletes be treated the same way as students of other disciplines?

Take a stroll around Sirrine some time. No one prevents big accountancy firms from trailing their goodies to recruit alumni to their firms. Why shouldn’t professional sports teams be recruiting at university, also? What’s wrong with these teams helping the students they choose with some extra cash to prevent the extraordinary schizophrenia we impose on our student athletes?

We impose a terrible burden on all of our student athletes to perform for our entertainment and, more importantly, so that our university can make money. Successful student athletes bring national attention, more students and more money to the university. Why shouldn’t student athletes get a piece of that action?

But I hear you say, “that’s unfair on the rest of us.” Any more unfair than scholarships? Those of us who excel at academic subjects are able to receive extra cash. Why not those who excel at sports? Are we back to the snobbery again? Sports isn’t a “real” university major.

I wish all students well. I want every student to be the very best they can be and to do all that they can to prepare themselves for the career ahead of them. That goes for student athletes, too. They should receive the plaudits– and the cash– that are their due.