<p>Sanctions vary from school to school and conference to conference, but it affects all schools at all levels.</p>
<p>Severe sanctions include banning post season appearances in basketball and football, loss of scholarships. If the problems are not cleaned up, schools could be forced out of Division I athletics: the death penalty.</p>
<p>This is what happens when you accept athletes who are academically unqualified. I say good riddance to Division I. I hope the schools don’t compromise standards. Then they should lose accreditation which would be worse than losing a DI sport.</p>
<p>This is a little melodramatic. Some of the violations go back years and years, and may only be one player who didn’t make grades- in some cases under a previous coach. The sanctions are only just now being imposed.</p>
<p>Bowling Green was the hardest hit, losing 8 football scholarships which is significant.</p>
<p>Its not melodramatic. Its across the board. Many schools were hit. Almost every athletic conference. The problem is less that the schools overall have poor academic standards as much as their athletic departments were fudging athletes who were failing a lot of classes because they didnt do the work, which is the responsibility of the athletic department to monitor closely, get tutors, or send those kids packing if they don’t cut the mustard. So much money is involved in athletics. Its a cancer on the academic institution, in many respects. There are always examples of student athletes, like that football player at Florida State who is a Rhodes Scholar. But that camouflages the real problem…too many athletes are not doing college level work. They got caught and now comes the sanctions. I am glad the NCAA is doing something about it.</p>
<p>Its not a past problem either. Its ongoing.</p>
<p>Is there a place to see this list? Can anyone provide a link please?</p>
<p>[Teams</a> Subject to Penalties 2008-09 By Institution - NCAA.org](<a href=“http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=49705]Teams”>http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=49705)</p>
<p>I agree, the OP is being melodramatic. I followed collegehelp’s link to the NCAA list of penalized teams. As far as I can tell, the list has Div 1 and Div 2 teams. There are 177 teams listed, but some schools have multiple teams. There were 107 schools listed.</p>
<p>According to a chart i found on the NCAA site, there were 1,051 NCAA member schools in 2007-08. So roughly 10% of the NCAA member schools had violations on one or more teams. Obviously the hope is that would be 0%, but 90% of the schools/athletic programs are doing it right!</p>
<p>Also, most of the penalties were scholarship reductions. Only two teams were banned from championship play.</p>
<p>If you have an axe to grind against college sports, you need to look elsewhere for data. This data doesn’t support it.</p>
<p>BTW, I happen to think that college athletics (at all levels) bring much more benefit to the student body than harm.</p>
<p>The list is dominated by lower tier state schools. A few privates, a few public flagships, but mainly directional state colleges and unis. I don’t see any Ivy League or Patriot League schools. Only one Big East school (South Florida), which is a bit of a surprise. Anyway, good for the NCAA for their oversight. Hopefully, those schools that got caught will learn their lesson and straighten things out.</p>
<p>I agree with mrsref that college athletics, DI, II or III bring more benefit than harm to the college campus.</p>
<p>This is just the tip of the iceberg. Some Div I schools spend a lot of money on tutoring their athletes in lavish facilities while the rest of the student body fends for itself. Colleges are supposed to be bastions of integrity.</p>
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<p>I wish they were “bastions of integrity” but I fear that may be an image of a system that has never existed in the US.</p>
<p>The athletics thing is all about $$$ as you well know. Big college sports equals big money, and when you need as much money as schools these days do to operate, it’s all about balancing the books.</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>That is another angle of this growing problem. And for MrsRef: I wouldnt be so proud of the 100 schools only representing 10% or so of the roughly 1,000 schools in Div. 1. This is the first time the NCAA has lowered the boom on schools who have been glossing over this problem for years. I specifically avoided labeling any particular conference or school to avoid any hint of elitism. Its a widespread problem.</p>
<p>Athletes also get better health care than the average student, often better dorms and food. Meanwhile, many of them can’t spell and tie their own shoes without any “help”, which it turns out was beyond what the NCAA deemed to be legal help and cost them bowl appearances, tournaments and scholarships.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with sports. In fact, I am a strrong supporter of inter-collegiate sports. Much moreso than I support or follow the professional leagues in fact. But I am tired of athletes with subpar stats getting into highly competitive schools and taking up valuable seats, while outstanding NON athletes are denied admission, or if they are admitted are left to fend for themselves. </p>
<p>I just want the NCAA to police these abuses more and weed out the bad apples with strong sanctions, which alone will cause schools to tighten their standards. </p>
<p>That isnt being melodramatic. Its supporting academic integrity, supporting a more even “playing field” (pardon the pun) on the academic field and admissions field, and reminding athletes that they are there not just to play sports but to attain an education, particularly if they are using scholarship money…as in “FREE RIDE”, while the rest of us are writing big checks to keep our students in college.</p>
<p>endless-- I didn’t see too many highly selective colleges on that list, to be honest. And clearly, those free rides are more than paying for themselves since these programs are money makers.</p>
<p>Most big-time sports programs pay for themselves.UNC’s basektball program earned $26 million last year (07-08), and without a doubt earned even more this year. A lot of this money was used by the university to fund academic, not athletic, scholarships. Football teams that make postseason appearances earn a ton of money from their bowl games also. In many cases, at NCAA D-1 schools with good programs, the sports bring much more to their universities than they take away. National exposure, a significant cashflow, and increased applications when teams do well.</p>
<p>The people who complain about NCAA D-1 sports being a detratcion to schools are strongly misguided. Yes, it doesn’t make sense to lower standards to recruit a star fencer or field hockey player, but big-name basketball and football teams are very beneficial to their schools.</p>
<p>Actually most football programs lose money and the few that turn a profit the gain is usually put back into the program.</p>
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<p>Not when you figure that alumni giving would be essentially 0 without those programs in some cases.</p>
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<p>Boo hoo. It’s life.</p>
<p>And yes, about 7-10 schools make money from football a year.</p>
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<p>Also when you figure that at least 50% of the people who go to football schools would go elsewhere if a school lost its football program.</p>
<p>^^^^^^Huh? Talk about generalizations…</p>
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<p>It would be tough for the NCAA to reduce te number of Ivy League scholarships, since they don’t give athletic scholarships in the first place. It would take a real serious violation for an Ivy school to appear on this list.</p>
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<p>Sure, as with Ivy, Div. III schools don’t give athletic scholarships. You can’t reduce what ain’t there.</p>