Do Prep Schools=diploma mills for athletes?

[akarnitz]

Schools Where the Only Real Test Is Basketball

By PETE THAMEL
Published: February 25, 2006
Each day at Eldon Academy in Michigan, Dewayne Walker could sleep till 11 a.m., practice basketball for 90 minutes and never spend more than two hours in class. He said that the only other students were his teammates, that his only teacher was also his coach. "I'm not a Harvard-type person," Walker said, "but I thought it would be a lot more work."

Justin Gardenhire laughed when recalling his classes at Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, N.Y., where many high school students are basketball players. Gardenhire said the school was so disorganized, a Spanish class one day would be French the next. "We had a spelling class," Gardenhire said. "I was like, 'Come on, are you serious?' "

<snip>

In the past two years, these young men attended unusual institutions — some called prep schools, some called learning centers — where all or most of the students were highly regarded basketball players. These athletes were trying to raise their grades to compensate for poor College Board scores or trying to gain attention from major-college coaches.

An investigation by The New York Times found more than a dozen of these institutions, some of which closed soon after opening. The Times found that at least 200 players had enrolled at such places in the past 10 years and that dozens had gone on to play at N.C.A.A. Division I universities like Mississippi State, George Washington, Georgetown and Texas-El Paso.

<snip>

more here:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25preps.html?th&emc=th

IMO, it's time for us in the U.S. to re-evaluate the relationship between athletics and institutions of learning. Many high schools, over the years, have let students with poor grades participate in athletics when the student could help the schools' teams win. This shortchanges both the student who performs poorly and the students who perform well academically by lowering academic standards.

This rash of new "prep schools" adds insult to injury. They fraudulently raise g.p.a.'s while separating the families of these kids from thousands of hard earned $$.

When will we seriously consider taking the "club system" approach to athletics? The sooner the better, for all of our kids.

[erpowers]

1. Bad-Parents Not Completely Dupes

I think this is a bad thing. It is sad that schools like this exist. However, I am not sure many of these families are really unknowingly separated from their money. I think many of these parents know what is happening and are fine with it.

I do not know what the club system is about. I just think there should be more oversight over the prep schools. I think many of these prep schools do not have anyone coming in and checking to see if the school is doing its job. In addition, I think states should enforce the penalties for allowing students with poor grades to play sports. I think it could be hard to do that, but it seems like states could prevent schools from participating in the playoffs if it is found that the school either allows students to participate in games when they have low grades or if it is found that the school does something fraudulent to keep the students' grades high.

[northzax]

2. there is a fairly simple answer

the NCAA should only accept grades for core classes from accredited schools. There is an accredidation process for private schools (and presumbably any charter school is overseen by the local school board) public schools are,by definition, accredited. If you apply to college from a non-accredited school, the school makes that decision on a case by case basis. So put the onus on the college programs, they can apply for exemptions for particular students, if they think the grades are good, and put their reputation on the line. The NCAA can then randomly select programs, and any school that vouched for an obviously bad one gets hit with recruiting violations.

not perfect, but not bad, either.

[Bill McBlueState]

3. "club system"

This is exactly what we need. When was the last time you heard of a baseball player getting a free ride through high school? Baseball and hockey have their own minor league systems, while basketball and football rely on the nation's schools, often with disastrous results.

[erpowers]

4. Wrong

I think a large amount ok baseball and hockey player get free rides through school you just do not hear about it as much. Anyway the NBA has a minor league system it just does not get the same attention that the minor leagues of baseball and hockey get. I think the real reason we do not hear about baseball and hockey player getting a free ride is that school do not make money off these sports. If a kid is failing and that kid plays baseball or hockey no one except the baseball fans and school fans will care if the team makes it to the playoffs or anything like that so it is possible that if the coach does not intervene the kid will get kicked off the team for a while. However, if you have a kid in basketball and football that can help the team win then the school can make a large amount of money so the school official might decide to let a few things slide and let the kid play in order to make money. If we really want school to stop letting kids slide with bad grades and bad behavior we need to curtail the profit motive for the sports. I would really like to see school benefit from the sports their kids play, but we need to do something that stops school officials from lettting kids graduate without an education. Some of these school get large amounts of money from their games being shown on TV.

[Bill McBlueState]

5. yes, but *why* are football and basketball the money-makers?

"schools do not make money off these sports"

Yes, that's an important factor. But why are football and basketball the big money makers for schools instead of baseball?

I still think it has to do with the minor leagues. Since football and basketball have obscure minor league systems, it falls to the schools to develop NBA and NFL talent. Because the schools bear this responsibility, they spend a lot more money on these sports and take a lot more money in. All that money opens up the gateway for corruption and is hard to reconcile with education.

High school and college baseball or hockey programs, on the other hand, play less of a role in talent development relative to those sports' minor league systems, so there's less money involved.

[northzax]

6. no one goes to college baseball games

and no one watches them on TV. there's your answer.

[Bill McBlueState]

7. well, I could ask "why"again...

Do you think people would watch more college baseball if it was the last step before a big major-league contract?

[northzax]

8. no, college baseball is a different game

the whole aluminum bat thing- and how do you explain that no one watches minor league baseball or hockey, and yet people watch college basketball and football, your 'minor leagues'?

[Bill McBlueState]

11. that's a good point

-that minor league baseball and hockey really aren't that popular.

Actually, I think one of the reasons college football is so popular is that the game has its roots in the colleges. College football was popular for the entire 20th century, while pro football didn't gain its current level of popularity until the Super Bowl era.

Professional baseball, on the other hand, dates back over 100 years, while I think the college game didn't take off until much later.

This is definitely getting away from the point of the OP, but I think it's worth considering just why men's basketball and football are the big money sports in college and high school.

[erpowers]

10. People Watch and Attend

These schools do make money off these sports. I do not agree with you that the reason for this profit is because they have to develop the talent. These schools make money off of football and basketball because people watch the games on TV and attend the games. I contend that more people watch college football and college basketball on TV and go to the games involving those sports than people who support college baseball and college hockey. Even if the college level was not the development level for college football and college basketball the schools would still make large amounts of money.

I think the main thing needed to stem the corruption in college & high school sports is tougher penalties. The principals of high schools and the presidents of colleges should be fired if the teams at their schools continue to fail for a certain number of years or if a certain number of teams fail during a year. In addition, coaches and athletic directors should be fired if teams consistently fail to meet academic standards. I contend that all to often the whole school is punished instead of the main people in charge of these departments. Leaders of the schools and athletic departments should fear the lose of their jobs.

It seems that firing coaches and athletic directors could be hard in that it seems that some alums from schools would rather have a winning team than a team that has kids that are not failing out of school or that are graduating from college. Even though Notre Dame was mentioned for exceeding NCAA academic standards some of you may remember the same thing happened (alums caring more about winning records than grades) at Notre Dame a few years ago. The school chose to fire a coach who had an at least slightly poor winning record, but was able to graduate 100% of his football players. I think the schools was getting pressure from the Alums to fire the coach in order to find a coach that would win more. I think the schools football graduation rate fell after that coach was fired.

[erpowers]

9. Something Else

Here is another fact that weakens you point. Of the 99 teams facing sanctions by the NCAA the second worse sport was baseball. Baseball had 40 teams that missed the academic cutline and 21 facing penalties. However, to be fair, Basketball was not far behind. There were 37 basketball teams missing the academic cut with 17 getting sanctions. Even so, I contend the information at the beginning of this post weakens your point in that if Baseball recieved had the second most failing teams then it seems the club system is not working as well as some might think.

[jakefrep]

12. The HS and College Sports phenomenon...

...has gotten WAY out of hand. The athletic department has become the "third rail" of the public education system. In a budget crunch, a school can cut arts, music, and educational stuff without much objection from the public. Woe betide any school administrator that dares to cut sports programs.

The NFL and NBA need to start paying for their own farm systems and let schools be schools.