For the rest, their futures lie elsewhere, and while most of the players taking the field Monday are on scholarship and all of them were given an opportunity for an education, whether that opportunity is realized is another matter.
A recent poll shows that American sports fans are not surprised that many athletes will squander their shot at education — because they or someone else has decided that football should be the No. 1 priority while they are in school, because their classes must fit into practice schedules or because their goals are set by athletic departments rather than academic advisers.
The poll also suggests that most fans have lost faith in the notion of the student-athlete.
In last week’s Monmouth University poll of 1,008 adults, 67% said they thought universities put too much emphasis on their athletic programs, and only 24% thought colleges with big-time programs — such as the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes, which are taking the field in Arlington, Texas, on Monday — find the right academic-athletic balance.
“Americans are in love with big-time college sports, but as the Monmouth poll makes clear, they also recognize that many institutes of higher education are not properly balancing the important mix of athletics and academics,” Monmouth President Paul Brown said in a news release.
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Much of that success has now been called into question, as an independent investigation uncovered an 18-year cheating scandal last year.
The investigation, conducted by former Prosecutor Ken Wainstein, found that thousands of athletes who were underprepared or too busy with athletics were funneled into “paper classes” where a one-time paper was accepted for an easy grade. Many of those papers were plagiarized, and administrators often knew it, the investigation found.
“I think the UNC example stands as a testimony to what little opportunity these athletes have for a real education,” said Gurney, who is current president of the Drake Group for academic integrity in collegiate sport.
“The NCAA and (its president) Mark Emmert, specifically Mark Emmert, promise athletes a world-class education, and that simply is not true and a boldface lie when it pertains to football and men’s basketball players in Division I.”
CNN’s Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
