Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/ncaa-athletes-unc-response/index.html?c=homepage-t

by codelion • 13 years ago

139 137 13 years ago

thenmar2• 13 years ago

College football, at least, might as well be a minor league. The stars play for two years, abandon their degree, and join the NFL. You'd have to be very naive to think that the athletes at top div 1 programs are true "student-athletes". Look at Penn State for a prime example of toxic "athletics are everything" college football culture. Look at the numerous recruitment scandals in which players or players' families were offered money or perks in exchange for matriculation. So they can't read? Play calling cards are images anyway. That's the attitude at these schools.

drusenko2• 13 years ago

although your point may be valid in general, you're pretty wrong about penn state:

http://news.psu.edu/story/293418/2013/10/30/athletics/penn-s...

thenmar2• 13 years ago

I was actually referring to the Sandusky scandal and how Paterno knew Sandusky was sexually abusing children and let the legal process die with minimally plausibly deniable effort.

adamnemecek• 13 years ago

He might have been referring to the this whole situation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Sandusky which contains many elements of the 'athletics are everything' mindset.

mirajshah• 13 years ago

I agree. For those familiar with soccer in Europe, take a look at the system they have in place there. Athletes on a path to professional sports join private sports clubs early on and (1) mature athletically much faster and (2) quickly have the potential to earn money for playing. Professional sports is a legitimate career which doesn't really require a college education, so we could really learn from Europe's clean division between school and sports.

Nux• 13 years ago

I think the football players in Europe are also pretty uneducated, though not being active in a college or uni nobody really cares. We just take it for granted.

My problem with football is the toxic environment that develops around it, all the abusive fans (a bunch of misogynist, homophobes, xenophobes and racist lowlifes), all the damn betting agencies - the black spot in any neighbourhood, all the scandals about bribes and such.

It's a shame, because the sport itself is very nice.

k-mcgrady• 13 years ago

> "Professional sports is a legitimate career which doesn't really require a college education, so we could really learn from Europe's clean division between school and sports."

I really hope that was sarcasm and I'm just missing it. I don't think the American system is all that great but seriously, have you listened to an English footballer give an interview? They can barely string a sentence together. Think of the kids who believe as you say, it's a legitimate career. The ones who then don't become professional and can't get a job as they left school so early.

sentenza2• 13 years ago

On a side note, and without wanting to complain about Penn State specifically: I spent a few weeks in State College, PA a few years ago as a student (coming from Germany) and was extremely weirded out. I felt as if I was visiting from another planet.

Overall, most things I saw while in the US, I could relate to in some way (industrious New York, beggars in Philadelphia, the tourist traps of New York, the hectic fast food restaurants), but I never managed to connect to the "college town experience" even though I had something like four weeks to do so.

Everything seemed to be curated, just like some footage of childhood christmas you see on television. Students and the interests of students dominated the entire experience. I felt as if I was visiting a theme park.

Funnily enough, I only tangentially registered the obsession with sports that seems to be very prevalent there. What I distinctly remember is wondering, why the "Academic Bookstore" had more Sports apparel and team merchandise than books in it.

It is hard to say if any meaningful insight can be gained from my personal experience there. I heared somewhere that going to college is an important way for young people in the US to escape culturally difficult surroundings (say, a radically religious community), but IMO it feels kind of sad that the college world is so separated from the rest of US culture.

adelevie• 13 years ago

Look at Penn State for a prime example of toxic "athletics are everything" college football culture.
Look at the numerous recruitment scandals in which players or players' families were offered money or perks in exchange for matriculation.

I graduated from Penn State in 2011--the year before the Sandusky scandal broke. It was easily the darkest time for my school, and I don't know a single person who wasn't feeling a mix of horror, shame, and disgust at what went on. While the connection between the football program and Sandusky's actions (a retired coach since 1998) leaves room for disagreement amongst reasonable people, Penn State is one of the few schools that handles student athleticism properly. Recruiting scandals, perks from boosters, and lackluster academic achievement from student athletes are problems that Penn State solves as well as any school out there.

The New America Foundation ranks top-25-BCS-ranked football programs by academic achievement of their players. Anytime Penn State's football team was ranked in the top 25 in the BCS, they have also ranked highly (usually #1) in New America's "Academic Bowl".[1]

I'd also like to point out the fascinating example set by John Urschel. He finished his math undergrad degree in three years with a 4.0 GPA[2]. He then finished his math masters degree the following year, again with a 4.0 GPA[3]. He has written academic research articles[4]. He writes software[5]. He teaches an undergrad math course[6]. He's also a graduating offensive lineman with a real shot at the NFL. He's weighing that prospect against the option of pursuing a Ph.D[7].

[1] http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2012/the_2012_..., http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2009/third_ann..., http://www.newamerica.net/blog/higher-ed-watch/2008/second-a...

[2] http://www.personal.psu.edu/jcu5018/cv.html

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] http://www.personal.psu.edu/jcu5018/publications.html

[6] http://www.personal.psu.edu/jcu5018/cv.html

[7] http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/sportsman/news/20131204/joh...

johnward4• 13 years ago

Which brings up another point. If the players are responsible for bringing in so much revenue why not just make it legal to pay them?

corin_2• 13 years ago

Who's sending death threats? People who make money off having good athletes in universities regardless of their education levels? Athletes who are afraid of being kicked out? Other? Four death threats seems awfully high for such a topic.

And what was the university thinking? Seems like denying knowledge of the report and claiming they can't comment on it without data (to CNN, not to a high school newspaper) was a terrible move given they had not only been given the reports, but had paid for the data which was in them.

Scienz• 13 years ago

This is just a guess, but I would suspect it's the fans. I remember seeing actual riots at my former school over a football (the American variety) game - the cars flipped, fires started, campus-police-in-full-riot-gear-firing-tear-gas kind. The fans probably just associate it as some brainiac professor declaring war on their culture and insulting their beloved players, and respond with hatemail and death threats.

thaumasiotes• 13 years ago

The fans probably just associate it as some brainiac professor declaring war on their culture and insulting their beloved players, and respond with hatemail and death threats.

With due respect to the fans... hatemail and death threats just make me think their culture is even more awful. Who's supposed to be convinced here?

mbillie1• 13 years ago

People who make money off having good athletes in universities regardless of their education levels?

You mean the type of people that pay college football coaches as much as ~$5M+/year? (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-highest-paid-coaches-i...) No, I cannot imagine one of these fine institutions benefiting from valuing athletics above academics. Surely college sports is all about education.

corin_2• 13 years ago

Obviously they care more about athletics, that doesn't mean they'd go as far as death threats.

epistasis• 13 years ago

As I get older and more aware I see rampant misogyny popping up wherever a woman challenges pretty much anything, and often merely for just existing. For something highly emotional like sports, such a reaction seems perfectly in line with what I see day to day, sadly. It's probably nobody with any power of even making any money off sports, quite the opposite, I'm sure.

yummyfajitas2• 13 years ago

Because clearly, men don't get death threats or get investigated by the FBI when they challenge the football establishment or other sports stars.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/men-indicted-threat...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337813/Anonymous-ha...

Nor would a man ever get death threads just for the lulz.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/4chan-bullied-the-og-youtub...

It doesn't take a lot. I write a not very popular blog, most of which is posts like "Scala is slow" or "Analyzing conversion rates with Bayes rule", and I've gotten an email or two expressing hope that harm would come to me [1].

[1] "if u get your wish just wait the cops womt protect you when underclas riot and hurt u". This was in response to a moderately popular blog post advocating that you should do a back of the envelope calculation to see if a public policy proposal makes sense ( http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2013/basic_income_vs_basic... ).

willvarfar• 13 years ago

Isn't it more the challenge of the establishment rather than that she is a woman? Surely the various steps and outcomes in this would have been sadly identical if a man had done the research and published it?

tomp2• 13 years ago

Death threats and criticism do not construe misogyny whenever they are directed towards a woman, but only when they happen because she is a woman, and wouldn't happen if a man was in an equivalent situation. I'm not convinced that is the case here. According to my observation of the world, football fans tend to be aggressive towards just about everyone (and everything).

jds375• 13 years ago

Wow.... I can't believe it's that bad. While I can understand athletes performing at lower levels than average students, there are certainly basic minimums that must be met. If 8-10% are below a 3rd grade reading level as the article claims, then just imagine how many are below a high-school level. Link to more in depth article for those interested also on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-score...

the_cat_kittles• 13 years ago

Why should an aspiring pro athlete be de-facto required / expected to be scholastically proficient? It seems like the crux of the problem is that aspiring athletes in America (except the very tip of the top prospects) need to compete in college to hone their skill set... not that I am the first person to say this of course. I think the universities are at 90% fault- they are the ones who try and maintain the image of equal treatment. They are also the ones who coddle athletes and enable their academic dishonesty. What would happen if schools started offer athletic scholarships where all the "student" does is play sports, and they don't bullshit about it? wouldn't that be better?

streetnigga• 13 years ago

"Why should an aspiring pro athlete be de-facto required / expected to be scholastically proficient?"

A vast majority will not succeed in their venture and these are schools. Poor career paths aside, the rest of the world expects you to be able to read and comprehend the menu in the food court. This goes doubly so if the aspiring athlete is working the till, which they often are before and after their career path.

watwut2• 13 years ago

I doubt those "between 8% and 10% of the school's football and basketball players" who "are reading below a third-grade level" are getting much education. At best, they are getting an empty degree.

ams61106• 13 years ago

A vast majority will not succeed in their venture

You are correct that the vast majority of collegiate athletes will not go on to play professionally. However most of them are well aware of this and actually can read and do take their academics more seriously. There are countless numbers of people who were athletes in college and who go on to success in professions other than sports.

The truly elite athletes who are very likely going to go on to play professionally also know this and may very well not have any intention of completing a degree.

venomsnake2• 13 years ago

In F1 the drivers are as competent as some of the engineers in STEM. I can bet Lance Armstrong knows a thing or two about air resistance, tension, torsion and fatigue of parts. And I have yet to see any competent bodybuilding that doesn't know what is going on in his body on a molecular level.

You need to know a lot of stuff to be top performer. The same way you need a rock hard body to be a top scholar - your brain just works better when your body is in better shape.

But the article is talking about basic literacy. You need that to be able just to integrate into society.

jamespo• 13 years ago

Not sure about a "rock hard" body but I'll check with Stephen Hawking

x00542• 13 years ago

If all they do is play sports, then you couldn't really call it a scholarship, could you. The athletes would play sports and in exchange they would get.... to play sports. And the college gets all kinds of money and publicity in exchange for ... allowing the "students" to play sports. Perhaps some of the more literate of the players might stop and think for a second about the situation, and then get a crazy idea like trying to form a union, or something equally preposterous. And then the colleges might have to share some of that game revenue with the people actually playing the game! What are you trying to do, freeze over hell?!

deevus• 13 years ago

I think English speaking society in general struggles with the English language.

Social media is where it gets to me the most.

Personally, I think this is appalling.

augustocallejas• 13 years ago

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-sham...

zainny• 13 years ago

Can anyone explain the interrelation between sports players and college for me? We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware. Am I understanding correctly that to play a sport professionally a person must first attend a college and complete some degree? Why does the US even have this system? Do any other countries do this as well?

eru• 13 years ago

People play while at college, I thought. The colleges make money off of the media spectacle. Lots of the players are good at sports, but not good at any of the things they are supposed to be in college for.

(But I'm no American, and have only visited once. So take my explanation with a pot of salt.)

ef4• 13 years ago

That's not really it. You don't need a degree to play professional sports, and some of the most talented players skip directly into professional leagues without finishing college. But college is where they have the best chance of honing their abilities and getting noticed.

College sports is all about money. Consider this map:

http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-...

Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising.

The players get paid nothing -- at most they get their tuition waived.

gaadd332• 13 years ago

Do any NFL players go directly from high school? I think I've heard of a few NBA players that have come close and MLB has its own minor league system so they recruit directly from high school.

JoeAltmaier• 13 years ago

If you're a naïve boogerbrain, they don't get paid anything. Then why do they wear expensive clothes and drive sports cars? They get plenty of 'in kind' gifts and privileges. Colleges are investigated all the time for outright bribing promising students.

alexeisadeski33• 13 years ago

Why are the mostly highly paid "public servants" in most states athletic coaches? Because the public universities make huge amounts of money from sports: the TV licensing deals, the ticket sales, the merchandising.

That's not why.

The coaches are paid a ton because were they to quit, they could be paid a ton somewhere else.

Why would they be paid a ton somewhere else?

Because other colleges want to win!

Why do they want to win?

Because without their football team, schools like Alabama and Texas and USC and and and would have ZERO credibility.

jsumrall2• 13 years ago

Yes and no. Ideally it's just a university sports team. But now college sports have gone from university students playing football in their spare time to exceptional athletes who attend classes in their spare time.

Some universities, such as UNC and Virginia Tech, have seen massive profits by selling merchandise thanks to these sports teams, and have made sports a higher priority than the actual academics. Now younger people are choosing to attend universities based on their sports team rather than the academics.

Anyone who disrupts this big business of college sports can expect to feel massive backlash from the university and the crazed fans of the sports teams.

jsumrall2• 13 years ago

And as someone else pointed out, the coach of the teams get paid more than the president of the university!

They get paid more than even their most valuable professors!

EliRivers• 13 years ago

As well as the money-spinner leagues, are there amateur (that's possibly not quite the right word for it, but the big college teams are clearly professional in all but name) leagues of the same sport for students who really are there to study and just want to play some inter-collegiate sports as well?

jasonwatkinspdx• 13 years ago

It depends on the particular sport and the leagues involved, but most future professional players will play a couple years at the college level. High-school super stars in some sports may go into the professional league directly but it's uncommon. In many sports no matter your skill level you cannot build the physique necessary to compete until a bit later in life (american football for example). Also, some leagues have implemented rules designed to prevent direct recruitment from high school, notably the NBA.

There's typically no requirement to finish college however. It's relatively common for athletes to move up to the pros and skip the last years of their academics.

The US's system is mostly due to history, but the current structure continues because it is worth an extraordinary amount of money. The schools with top athletic teams bring in revenues of 100 million or more. The governing body for college athletics generally prohibits significant payments to the athletes themselves, so all that income goes to coaches and other staff, as well as supporting businesses. College coaches are usually the highest paid people on campus. This continues to be a bitter political topic, because many people see it as unfair that college athletes are generating so much money for everyone but themselves. The other side points out that allowing paid recruitment and player endorsement/advertising would have a corrupting effect as well as make it difficult for smaller schools to be competitive.

As far as I know, our system is unique, and that's probably because we were televising college athletics earlier and more heavily than other nations.

KC8ZKF• 13 years ago

Most baseball players go to the minor leagues right out of high school.

djrobstep• 13 years ago

College coaches are usually the highest paid people on campus.

Not only that, in most states they are the highest paid of all public employees: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672861/infographic-whos-your-st...

mcv2• 13 years ago

As far as I know, our system is unique, and that's probably because we were televising college athletics earlier and more heavily than other nations.

It's not just that it's televised, it's that sports are tied to schools and colleges at all. Netherland has tons of youth sports, but all in indepdent, often volunteer-run clubs. For many sports (football and hockey[0] at least) there's a youth league for every two-year age group, and after the last one, when you're 18, you move to the adult leagues. Those are generally amateur leagues, but professional football clubs have their own youth programs (playing in the same leagues) and recruit from all clubs in the vicinity (not to mention rival clubs and foreign countries).

[0] And here I mean the football where a round ball is played with the foot, rather than American Football; and the hockey that's played on a field, rather than ice hockey.

revelation• 13 years ago

It's not just college. Apparently sports are also a big part of high school, with money supporting a schools competitive team coming directly from the school budget.

That is simply not at all how it works here. You of course have sports education in school, but it is not competitive and you can't choose either.

alexeisadeski33• 13 years ago

The governing body for college athletics generally prohibits significant payments to the athletes themselves, so all that income goes to coaches and other staff, as well as supporting businesses.

Most of the money goes to the university itself.

pirateking2• 13 years ago

I highly recommend the 1994 film Hoop Dreams[1]. It provides a look into the world where school meets sport.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams

chops• 13 years ago

Also, South Park Episode "Crack Baby Athletic Association" skewers the college sports system in the US.

http://beta.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-...

forgottenpass• 13 years ago

Am I right in assuming you have below-pro level "farm leagues"? In the States, for various historical and financial reasons, some sports will effectively replace their farm leagues with Division I inter-collegiate sports.

rplnt• 13 years ago

This is probably the case. However, I don't see how it is relevant to education (other than money mentioned elsewhere). "Minor/second/.." leagues could survive on their own. No need to take schools into account.

_delirium3• 13 years ago

We don't really have such a concept in Australia as far as I'm aware.

There do seem to be university sports leagues in Australia, they just aren't taken as seriously afaict, e.g.: http://www.aurl.com.au/

vacri2• 13 years ago

It's not that they're not taken seriously, just that they're not in any way a requirement to be a professional player. To play cricket, aussie rules, rugby, hockey, netball and so on at the professional level doesn't require a feeder system of athletes from the tertiary education sector. Professional athletes also aren't introduced by sportscasters as 'name, college'.

Who knows, it might catch on. Other American sports oddities have, like that annoying singing of the national anthem before each match and providing a role for athletic women in professional sports by making them cheerleaders...

jstevens85• 13 years ago

While university sport certainly exists, the major differences are that i) they don't generate any revenue, and ii) student athletes don't receive any advantage in university admissions.

gadders• 13 years ago

It does seem strange compared to the UK system as well. Here, for football (soccer), most people would join a club or youth team at 16 or so. Nobody expects football players in the UK to have brains. I can think of only a couple of footballers with a college degree - Graham Le Saux and Steve Coppell, I believe. Joey Barton has A Levels but is probably not a good advertisement.

fit2rule2• 13 years ago

On the other hand .. Australia has a huge sports-worship culture, akin to the US in many ways with regards to ferocity and cult behaviour among the proponents. I've never understood how it is that certain realms of Australian culture think that being a sporty person is more important than being an intelligent, well-informed person - but there is some sort of cultural disassociation between these two worlds that appears to be culturally driven.

In the US, its been driven even further in that there are billion-dollar industries behind the sports cult. Perhaps thats the ticket: sport is a cult because there's money to be made.

stormcrowsx• 13 years ago

Evolution has ingrained competitiveness in us and its our way of proving our little section of the world produces better things than yours.

A mostly wasteful use of resources but to the majority this is a sufficient way to prove your city/state/country is better than another. I'd rather see who can fly the furthest into space but eh enjoy what you got.

AlisdairSH• 13 years ago

In addition to the responses already entered, the NFL (in combination with the NFLPA, the union that represents players) also requires athletes entering the draft to be three years out of high-school (typically 21 years old in the US).

So, even if you happen to have the physical aptitude to play professionally at age 18, you are barred from doing so.

waylandsmithers• 13 years ago

As far as I can tell, this is a uniquely American phenomenon, and how we got here could easily be the subject of a full research paper.

Here's my theory:

It all starts with Harvard and Yale wanting a leg up on each other in their football rivalry, which dates back to 1875. Professional football did not start in the US until many years later. Football, and to some degree basketball and other sports, came to represent a very serious way for colleges to express rivalries with each other.

Seriously: "After The Game of 1894, which came to be known as the "Hampden Park Bloodbath" and about which newspapers reported seven players carried off the field "in dying condition," the two schools broke off all official contact including athletic competition for two years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_r...

As such, each institution became hell-bent on defeating the other at football, which led to the relaxing of academic standards to admit superior athletes. Things have spiraled out of control from there. Many schools now face very serious pressure from alumni and other donors who demand athletic success. Recruiting top high school athletes is an extremely shady business, as both schools and athletes have a lot at stake.

Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivy League schools today do not do this to the extent that some others do and have policies against awarding scholarships based on athletics-- they are small and elite institutions that can't get away with admitting students who literally cannot read. But even the schools with these policies admit athletes who would probably not get in based on their academics alone.

AutoCorrect• 13 years ago

Here, SouthPark says it best:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e05-crack-b...

maxerickson• 13 years ago

A tradition of friendly competition turned into a huge business.

The leagues have some rules about when players can be drafted, but those rules are more about simplifying and reducing competition in recruiting than they are about the players.

rayiner• 13 years ago

In the U.S. a number of sports developed first at the college level. American Football, in particular, was developed and popularized by colleges (particularly the Ivy League schools, and particularly by Yale). Collegiate football remained more popular than professional football well into the early 20th century.

netcan• 13 years ago

I don't really understand the US' college sports system. But from my very flimsy outsider picture, it seems like a pretty good system.

It's flush with cash. I see complaints of how a lot of this is captured by coaches and staff, but I'm sure some flows to (for example) less popular sports too. It gives athletes a college education and an incentive to finish high school. This article is obviously about cracks in that system. Overall the effect on athletes' education is probably very positive, especially outside of the super-elite players in more popular sports.

Compare that to european amateur sports systems that have nothing to do with college: It is pretty hard for a 19 year old with a sport as the no 1 thing in their life to get a degree at all.

marvin• 13 years ago

At least we know that she is onto something. If people threaten your life over your research, you can be sure that you're in the right ballpark, so to speak.

cLeEOGPw• 13 years ago

The problem is the requirement for athletes to have a degree. Why can't the athletes be separated from the rest, and only those that truly want to learn, attend lectures/exams? Professors wouldn't have to pass them and the degree would not be an empty paper.

Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read

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