And this hits home, because I got my master's degree in Boulder. "Neon Deon" Sanders has pushed 18 players into the transfer portal because they didn't fit his model for football, and while I understand that to a degree--I was cut from the track team at MSU because I wasn't good enough--it also strikes me that I didn't have to leave Michigan State because I was no longer running, and I didn't have to re-do key classes to get my degree like these guys likely will.
Given the trouble most former college football players have--having learned Cadillac tastes while the degrees they got (if any) gave them a decidedly Chevrolet budget, all while nursing lingering injuries from the game--there is something here that is just appalling.
It's not the only way it can be used--I've seen a number of players from Michigan use the transfer portal as a way to get graduate degrees at other schools while freeing up roster/scholarship spots at Michigan for more gifted athletes--but I think there's a point where we need to start asking coaches like "Neon Deon" what his team is primarily there for.
Pro tip; it doesn't happen at Folsom Field. Go Big Red!
2 comments:
This is one of the big problems that comes with parenting that puts all the eggs in the athletics basket. And black parents (most often single mothers coaxed by HS coaches) are notorious for this kind of thing despite the fact that their boys are already high risk and MUST be given other options besides the long odds of pro sports.
Now, to the extend that Deion *should* be more sensitive to that and isn't, I agree with you. There needs to be a way to fill that chasm if the school sports acreer ends before the degree is conferred.
Just as bad as no degree at all is the issue of degrees targeted mostly at athletes, like Michigan's "General Studies" degree. Well said that fraudulent academics victimize blacks disproportionately, too.
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