Having seen how Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg got himself into some trouble by bad-mouthing Purdue (Go Boilers, of course), I got curious about who this person is, and found some very interesting things:
- Dropped from his high school team for poor grades
- Somehow managed to graduate from UAB without ever declaring a major
- Now a "graduate student" at Michigan studying...basketball
- Has been playing college basketball for six years.
I didn't think that Michigan could out-do themselves from Rumeal "Remedial" Robinson, infamously a Prop 48 player somehow getting a 3.0 GPA in "General Studies" at the "Harvard of the Midwest", but apparently they're getting more and more creative in Ann Arbor at avoiding actual academics for their "student-athletes". With six years of eligibility and no apparent academic requirements to actually work towards a degree, it's pretty clear that the NCAA in general, and Michigan in particular, is rapidly becoming just another semi-pro league.
And as I've said many times before, the problem with this is that this system is giving young people Cadillac tastes and a Chevy budget with huge NIL money and then....no degree. A great example is, again, Rumeal Robinson, who despite years in the NBA, went into bankruptcy and then prison for financial fraud.
How to fix this? Let's bring Prop 48 back, but with teeth--if someone cannot achieve 700 points on the SAT, bill their high school for the cost of educating them to the point where they can. But don't immediately give them NIL money and a roster spot at a college where, academically, they clearly don't belong.
In related news, a player who transferred from Ohio State to Notre Dame notes that it's a big adjustment actually having to show up in class. I think that speaks for itself, as does the fact that most of the Michigan State basketball team does not mention a "major" in their biographies. Sorry, guys, most of you aren't going to strike it rich in the NBA, NFL, and the like. Might be smart to have a degree.
2 comments:
I'm not familiar with this story, but I am not even a little bit surprised by it. It's absurd the things these colleges resort to for the sake of getting a talented athlete on their roster. If they aren't a student, then they shouldn't be a "student-athlete".
It's been going on to some degree as far back as I can remember, but I remember that until a few years ago, athletic department pages actually used to list majors--not so much anymore. So I'd argue that with big NIL money, academics is even more of an afterthought.
And as I've been (ranting) saying for years, it's the kids with the weakest academic backgrounds (kids from poor neighborhoods, minority kids) that are hardest hit. Not a good look for "opportunity" here.
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