<p>nysmile writes:
My hope for the future of college athletics is for college administrations to strongly back coaches when it comes to dealing with and following through with consequences when college athletes are not adhering to their college’s Honor Code (or the standards of the law for that matter). Hopefully, the old days of turning a blind eye to such behavior for the sake of a win and a championship will be no more.</p>
<p>-Coaches have an inherent conflict of interests when it comes to handing out discipline to players that they (a) need to win games and (b) recruited to the college in the first place. Therefore, in almost all D1 programs, the decision about what to do with players who comitt felonies is no long in the head coaches hands like in the good old days when the coach would handle it “in house” (i.e. make the guy run stadiums until he puked, sweep it under the rug because the guy can play). The point is the decision is now in the hands of administrative committees so your hope that administrators back up coaches really doesn’t make sense. That ship has sailed a long time ago. </p>
<p>-The coach might ANNOUNCE that a player is gone but the coach isn’t necessarily making that decision anymore. </p>
<p>Coureur,</p>
<p>I don’t think I am assuming anything about your posts or the posts of folks who think like you do. You might be assuming that student-athletes are not real, qualified students. You might be assuming that athletic programs divert funds from the Univ’s operating fund when in fact in many cases they are contributing to it. You might be assuming that universities don’t already devote enough funds to their primary mission. </p>
<p>When a university cuts a program it might be because that program doesn’t pass the free enterprise test of having benefits greater than costs. </p>
<p>When a university reduces course offerings it may or may not have anything to do with the athletic program budgets. I will agree with people who think like you do – coaches salaries are far too high. I also think the idolization of athletes is truly bizarre. Apparently, according to ESPN, 13,000 people showed up to celebrate LeBron James signing with Miami. There was loud music and general hero worship. Wow. I guess some people really do not have any life at all. I’m not sure what else to say. </p>
<p>But, getting back to this thread and how athletes are thugs because of what 7-10 Tenn students did, and the big picture that maybe most athletes are undeserving students, or the notion that athletics doesn’t enhance a U’s mission, well, we can agree to disagree. I am sure you won’t change my mind and I probably won’t change yours no matter how many times it comes up. We are probably wasting each other’s time even talking about it. </p>
<p>In passing, I will say this. Derek Dooley is new to his job as the Tenn HC. He is coming into a situation where the fans are restless because Tenn, a once proud program, is in decline. Tenn hasn’t beaten arch rival UF in a long time and they hate Bama even worse and haven’t had much luck there either. A lot of people are going to be watching to see what happens to this players. If they are charged with felonies, as I explained earlier, it is out of Dooley’s hands but Dooley can add to whatever the internal Tenn committee comes up with after the criminal justice system runs its course. So people will be watching to see what Dooley does. </p>
<p>You can’t beat an off duty cop unconscious and get away with it even in the football mad SEC so these guys are probably gone. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the other 80 some odd scholarship football athletes and another 5-10 walkons, are doing exactly what every other student is doing plus getting read for another football season.</p>