U North Carolina College Sports and Fake or Ultra-Easy Classes

[exlurker]

Some current findings about fake (or nearly fake) classes at the U of North Carolina - Chapel Hill . Reportedly these classes were pushed at student athletes who needed boosts to GPAs in order to maintain eligibility.

Interesting reading!

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcspor...letes/related/

[Sen's Revenge]

My alma mater had rigorous classes. I am not saying that because I am a snob, but because I looked high and low for easy classes my damn self!

That said.... I knew that I would perform slightly better in a class that had athletes in it. That sounds terrible to say aloud. But I do feel that I was from a similar academic background as that of the varsity basketball players and there was NO WAY I could possibly perform worse than them. And I KNEW they were going to pass, so I would pass even better than them.

BUT

I don't think it was the classes that were easier. I think it was that the professors knew I was trying twice as hard with half the help.

Basketball had an academic coordinator.

They had access to earlier assessments, referrals, and interventions - so they would come to school practically the first day with all necessary accommodations (if they needed them) like note-takers, tutors, etc.

They didn't all have these things, but they had people who would refer them sooner.

I likely had a learning disability in math, but nobody ever caught that and said hey, this kid might need extra help. But I also didn't make the school millions of dollars.

[Low D Flat]

That sounds terrible to say aloud.

It doesn't sound terrible to me. Every highly selective DI school is filling the bottom of the class, in terms of HS grades and scores, with varsity athletes. That's a fact. Any one individual may turn out to be a brilliant student despite lower numbers coming in, but as a group, there's pretty strong evidence that they won't be the best students at that school.

[AGDee]

And in other news, water is wet. They act like this is a new thing? Is there really a full time college student out there who could be academically successful while working as a football or basketball player for a University which makes millions off these young people? The hours of practices, travel time, etc. precludes being able to successfully navigate a typical college student's course load. Nobody thinks a student athlete's degree is the same as an academic degree. Even at my college, which wasn't good academically or athletically (LOL), the football players all majored in phys ed. It's not like they're going to be aerospace engineers.

[Sciencewoman]

When I was at Michigan, the Michigan Daily student newspaper did an "expose" on the football and basketball team members' majors and admission statistics. The school had cut many of the undergraduate education programs (elementary education, for example), but they kept PE. The gist of the article was they had to keep PE for the athletes. It also stated that any admitted student who didn't meet the standard HS GPA and ACT score was automatically admitted to the PE program. Then it included the percentages of student athletes who fell into that admission category, and the percent of PE majors who were student athletes. Surprise...a very, very high correlation between the two. The conclusion was that while many teacher prep majors had been cut, PE remained for the major purpose of housing student athletes. Now there is a "general studies" major that seems to be popular, if going by the football game program roster is any indication.

However, I'm always incredibly impressed by the team members who do have difficult majors, and especially those who can pull off academic honors, given the incredible demands on their time. Desmond Howard was a graduate student when he won the Heisman.

[Low D Flat]

Is there really a full time college student out there who could be academically successful while working as a football or basketball player for a University which makes millions off these young people?

Yes. Look at Stanford. Look at the handful of players like Tennessee's QB, who IS an aerospace engineering major. (You can find them at Northwestern, etc.). The schools just have to be serious about going after athletes who have the skills and inclination to handle it all. The vast majority of schools are willing to sell out academics to get better players/employees. That's particularly sad with schools like UNC that have terrific reputations and turn away a lot of smart, hard-working STUDENT applicants.

There are actual student-athlete conferences, too. Are there data showing that big-conference scholarship football players spend more hours per week practicing etc. than those in the Ivy League? I mean, maybe they do, but it seemed to me that our Ivy football players were working at least a full time job. There were non-athletes doing it too; I knew a student who was a full-time dancer with a professional ballet troupe while an undergrad.

[als463]

Penn State had a player, John Urschel, who earned his master's degree in math and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. That's just one example of how many of these great schools do not always take poor students. The University of South Carolina made the news over the summer for not accepting some football players who didn't meet the academic standards of the university.

Really, there is no excuse for this. The worst part about this is that one of the professors who was accused of this academic violation used to be director of the ethics institute at UNC. It's sad because UNC is a top university and this is going to bring their reputation down a bit. Not all athletes are poor students and not all schools allow this type of thing to go on.

[LaneSig]

It looks like Greek Life got involved, too.
http://www.ibtimes.com/unc-cheating-...t-gpas-1711399

"University of North Carolina athletes weren’t the only group benefiting from the college’s recently exposed 18-year, 3,100-student cheating scandal -- fraternity members did, too. More than 700 fraternity brothers, and some sorority sisters, took the no-attendance, no-professor, one-assignment “paper classes” that earned them easy A’s and B’s. Some fraternity members took so many African and Afro-American studies courses -- the ones revealed to be rigged -- that they accidentally earned minors in the subject."

[Sen's Revenge]

Originally Posted by LaneSig

"Some fraternity members took so many African and Afro-American studies courses -- the ones revealed to be rigged -- that they accidentally earned minors in the subject."

HAHAHAHHAHHAHHAHHA

[sigmadiva]

When I was an undergrad at TAMU I took a toxicology course that was an 'easy A' class. Over half the football team was in the class.

[clemsongirl]

Although I am fully aware that certain classes at Clemson are known to be easier than others, this scandal is one of the reasons I am thankful that all courses are capped for athlete enrollment at one-quarter of the maximum class enrollment. This on its own doesn't stop fake classes from potentially occurring but it does that all the athletes cannot be clustered in the same fake class.

[LaneSig]

http://www.businessinsider.com/ncaa-...cision-2017-10

Three years later, the NCAA will not sanction UNC for the "Paper Classes". One reason given is because the courses were apparently well known throughout the campus.

Apparently, since so many fraternity members took the courses, it was deemed that the courses were not just created for the athletes.

So, see? Fraternities do do some good.

[ChioLu]

I took a course known as "rocks for jocks" at OU. Easy A.
Most of the football team took the class.

[tinydancer]

We had "Pots & Pans" and "Piggy Bank" at Texas.