Rotten Nuts: Thoughts on Culture at Ohio Sports University and Beyond
i wanted to ruminate on OSU for a bit. to be clear: nothing i say here is about coaching or strategy which is all fair game to discuss. this is about program culture.
i think OSU as an institution is filled with scumbags, but they are currently better at football than we are. i would love to crush them, and instead i choose to enjoy the sport, watch the games, support my alma mater, and not enter into emotional crisis when we lose to a better team -- but that's just me.
anyway: a lot has been made of the absurd online course load that OSU athletes can take, consequently allowing them to focus on football significantly more so than academics. why isn't this possible at michigan if it's possible there? our respective institutions value different things in a time when education is increasingly precarious.
at Ohio Sports, they have long mortgaged the "legitimacy" of their student athletics program, openly acknowledging it as absurd by flouting the rules constantly. at michigan, we have maintained a stance of "integrity" while we (harbaugh) try to convince ourselves and the world that there's something special about taking classes and playing football at the same time.
i believe the difference is rooted in many factors that affect both institutions, but includes the corporatization of higher education, the defunding of k-12 schools in favor of private enterprise, and long-standing feelings of cultural inadequacy in comparison to the michigan people that can read and write good and don't wash themselves with a rag on a stick. that and the confused ethics around money-making in sports. i won't get into any of the former stuff in a sports blog, however.
the main sports factor here, though, is the professionalization of college football and its relation to television money. we make a tremendous amount of money off of this stuff -- yet there is a contradictory acknowledgement by folks like harbaugh and manuel that NIL rights are worthy of exploration and that athletes deserve compensation. they want to go about it the "right way" but still engage in the same exploitation as all the other programs. i think that is hypocritical.
tressell, urban, and now day have created an atmosphere where they don't play school but actually mean that. for these elite football players, Ohio Sports is not a fucking academic institution, it's a professional training academy. it's IMG college. while michigan players are being enriched with life experiences such as traveling to south africa, the goons in ohio are working on football. when shea patterson was playing golf, justin fields was pretending to be a student while working on football. it's a different mindset that only pretends there's something special about college football before going to work.
i guarantee, however, that not all their players get all the extralegal benefits, just the stars. but in order to facilitate this, they all must be okay with lying. the coaches and admin are all good with cheating some of their own players like regular ncaa athletes, while rewarding others with cash and benefits. the cheating bleeds into a culture that will make a decision to cover up domestic violence and then lie about it. i think that's extremely hypocritical, but also deeply cynical.
and that's kind of the crux: Ohio Sports is a cynical institution, we are a romantic one. they pay their stars while still exploiting them, and exploit everyone else more to placate the facade. they lie; they enable abusers to prowl their campus; they win. we romanticize a wonderful football past; we romanticize the michigan identity; we romanticize the bo era and 1997. we feel entitled to relive the glory of our past. they feel entitled to the present at any cost.
the central reason, then, that elite recruits haven't really amassed for us in the way they have for the "football factories" (Ohio Sports isn't the only school that is a fake institution of course, they're just the worst people in that they're from ohio) is that these athletes now have options to develop their craft without having to play school at all. zach harrison probably saw that his quickest ticket to millions of dollars and lifetime wealth and security is to focus on his profession. being a kid, i bet it was extremely tempting to come to michigan and be around people i am going to assume he liked better because they're not buckeyes, and doing fun things like going on trips.
but we live in a world where money is freedom, safety, and security. any rational person who is touted as elite would be mistaken to not take the shortest path towards these things. michigan's path is circuitous and filled with obstacles like college classes. you have to want that to come to michigan. most elite athletes don't want that. why not opt for a more professional approach?
i think that because of these things, michigan fans have to decide whether they want to be another meaningless place that takes the easiest path towards winning, or if they feel there is something unique about michigan that's worthy of support despite being worse at football than our rival. i am in the latter category, having completed both undergrad and graduate degrees at michigan, and having experienced what makes michigan special. i value this more than winning at all costs. i don't know if there's a direct trade-off between these dynamics, but i know that i'd probably be a lot less interested in football if my team's coach was a piece of shit like urban meyer.
i have little recourse, then, but to remain enthusiastic and optimistic, support our team, and adjust the expectation from "the best team in the world" to very good, plucky underdogs. teams like iowa and wisconsin exist and have great traditions and are mostly enjoyed by their fanbases, with many good seasons and successes short of championships.
unfortunately that's where we are stuck right now. i don't think a coaching change or a new scheme is going to overcome vast gaps in talent and ability, no less the other significant advantages already discussed. but to me, this is still much better than rooting for a fucking sham run by liars who will go to any length to maximize profit, including covering up domestic violence, and whose aim is to extract as much wealth as possible from 17-22 year olds.
if that's what you're in to, just buy an IMG academy jersey and embrace the slime. even if the rules themselves are dumb, playing by a different set of rules that trample everything else just to win is what stupid, childish bullies do. throw in copious greed, and that sounds like a buckeye to me.
with legislation and more legal entanglement sure to come, we have reason to believe that the landscape of recruiting and college football writ large will indeed change in the near future. but for now, unless we choose to change who we are for what i deem to be the worse, we are going to be miserable.
which begs the question: given all that we know, why would anyone want to be like Ohio Sports University in the first place?
January 3rd, 2020 at 5:09 PM ^
As I wrote in a previous comment, with all due respect to the OP, I think it's a loser mentality to make excuses for our poor performances against OSU. Michigan is absolutely capable of beating OSU while also adhering to the NCAA's rules. Michigan is absolutely capable of attracting 5 star players. Michigan is absolutely capable of coming up with a gameplan to beat OSU. That it hasn't happened has nothing to do with online coursework and everything to do with how long it has taken for Michigan to adopt a modern offense and how complacent Michigan has been about trading on its "name" and not fighting like hell for every recruit.
In the Bo days, sure, we beat OSU a lot and won a lot of Big 10 titles. But we lost nearly every bowl game Bo coached in. We never won a national championship under Bo. That wasn't because the other teams cheated -- it was because Bo was not as awesome of a coach as the nostalgists would have us believe.
So let's put an end to the loser mentality, Comrades, and fight like hell to get ourselves over the mountaintop.
January 3rd, 2020 at 5:30 PM ^
solidarity, as communist football is the best football. i don't find it realistic to expect to win all these recruiting battles and then the games in spite of severe systemic disadvantage.
to put it in other (semi-joking) terms, it would be like expecting the proletariat to lift themselves by their bootstraps into the ruling class. that they cannot do so is not because they are losers; it's because the system is rigged against them.
i do completely agree however that this discussion is not an excuse for the disheartening way that we often play, just the talent margin. that's another topic and in a previous comment i addressed some of the significant concerns i have with harbaugh.
i absolutely believe we should be able to play better and look better and to frequently beat them, just that it is unreasonable to expect us to be the better team in the presence of a football factory in our own division. the conclusion i came to was more about our own cultural response, and i agree that we should keep rooting and supporting our team rather than collapsing into self-immolation at every loss.
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:29 PM ^
Got any evidence OSU is just a football factory and doesn't care about education? Don't bring up Tressel either, different coach, different time. Rich Rod had players illegally practicing extra time here but that doesn't mean JH does that.
Do you really think sitting on the beaches of Rio is an "educational experience" or that UM's "general studies" program is that more rigorous than online courses? Free world travel IS throwing money at recruits- I don't see OSU doing this.
UM's 4 year recruiting rankings are almost the same as OSU's
OSU- 96.5
UM- 95.0
Wisconsin- 75.2 (blew us out)
Army- 18.6 (would have beat us at home if they had a field goal kicker)
Looking at the numbers above- do you really think our problem is recruiting or coaching?
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:58 PM ^
i could be reading it incorrectly but this chart says that we were twelve spots behind ohio state in connelly's weighted 4 year metric. that seems like a lot.
also i think it's both!
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:27 PM ^
Couldn't agree more!
January 4th, 2020 at 8:38 AM ^
There’s no “name” to “trade on.” Nobody who didn’t go to Michigan cares about the Michigan “name.” Michigan is in a declining, talent-poor state with shitty weather. There is no way to overcome those disadvantages in any sustainable way while making a good-faith effort to adhere to the rules.
January 5th, 2020 at 1:26 PM ^
We have some serious disadvantages, to be sure, but at least we’re not MSU.
Thank goodness for small favors.
January 8th, 2020 at 11:29 AM ^
Yeah our future is uneasy but theirs is downright depressing. Very glad we're on the winning side of that.
January 17th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
I agree about the "loser mentality".
The irony is that if you want to learn the truth about yourself, what is wrong with you, what is wrong about what you're doing, why you suck, why you continue to fail, or why people just don't like you, the answer is not to hang out, confide in and listen in comfort to your friends, family and jovial colleagues who frankly have no choice but to tolerate you.
No, you listen to your enemies. Not all of your enemies. But definitely the ones that have been consistently bashing your skull in, pulling your pants down and humiliating you.
Say what you want about bullying. It's awful, painful, brutal and immoral. But goddammit if it doesn't light a fire under you to get you questioning yourself, and yanking you out of your comfort zone and complacency to change and improve. This is what makes revenge possible.
Because no matter how much you may hate them, or how much unmitigated contempt they hold for you, your enemies contempt is valuable to you in the sense that they are honest in that contempt. It's your friends that are probably lying to you. And what your own enemies say about you is likely the uncomfortable truth that you need to accept.
Ohio State runs their football program like a business. They have won a lot of football games, most of them decisively. They have lost some very big games as well. But they have BIG10 titles and NCs over the past 10 years and countless bowl game and playoff game wins upon which to build and improve even more.
When Bo showed up in Ann Arbor, Ohio State was the No. 1 team in the land. They were only 12-7 vs. Michigan since 1950. By comparison Ohio State is 17-3 vs. Michigan since 2000.
The main reason Bo started turning the table on Woody Hayes and Ohio State was he adopted EVERYTHING Ohio State had already been doing - offensively, defensively and coaching and scheme mentality. But the biggest contributor to the change was that unlike his predecessos, Bo shamelessly and brutally recruited the living crap out of the state of Ohio, and did so with impunity for the duration of his career. Most of the time Bo's efforts within Scarlet & Gray living rooms no doubt failed. But there's no question that many of the best players on Bo's rosters over 20 years would have otherwise gone to play at Ohio State.
But let's be real. Winners ARE the losers who never gave up.
Michigan recruits at a high level - no question. The Wolverines will probably land the No. 2 BIG10 class and No. 11 national class in 2020. That's good. But it's not great.
And Michigan has not been consistently great in recruiting for a long, long time.
I agree that Michigan is capable of beating Ohio State. But not on a consistent basis given the current UM performance on the recruiting trail. I do not see this aspect changing any time soon given the personalities on Michigan's staff, including the two underwhelming new hires/promotions announced this week. This is only my opinion.
January 3rd, 2020 at 7:09 PM ^
Worst State Ever
For OSU, its all about winning so the end justifies the means
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:01 PM ^
Shitty move to call out a specific kid like Zach Harrison. You know nothing about him personally or his decision making process. Grow up.
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:06 PM ^
dear strong reader: i will never call another buckeye "rational" again, i promise.
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:25 PM ^
Perhaps we should go the online class route. It appears that ohio's academic progress rate is second only to Northwestern - we are third. https://collegefootballnews.com/2019/05/2019-ncaa-academic-progress-rate-football-apr-rankings-by-conference
I really hope the athletes and coaches within the program don't think the way some of our fans do. The first step toward solving a problem is recognizing it. By habitually complaining that everyone else cheats, and few have our academic standards, I am afraid we are doomed. We recruit the same players as the top 5 schools in the country. We have landed some excellent recruiting classes - it just seems that we get less out of more and it has little to do with buying players or online classes.
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:50 PM ^
you make some fair points, but wouldn't it be unrealistic to not acknowledge that there is a systemic disparity going on for multiple reasons, including academic standards and extra benefits? my point is more 'acknowledge the reality, stop complaining when we lose, keep cheering for the team. we should want to be us rather than be sad we're not like them.' i feel like in doing so am 'recognizing the problem' but maybe i misunderstand you.
i completely agree coaching needs to be better -- not really what i was talking about -- but i also don't think it's the primary reason we lose.
January 4th, 2020 at 10:52 AM ^
So, you actually believe ohio’s star players are the ones taking the online exams? Wow - you’re one of the people PT Barnum was referring to.
Go Blue!
January 4th, 2020 at 4:19 PM ^
Thanks for confirming my point. Like I said, hope the football players and coaches don't think like SOME of our fans. Everyone else cheats, we are the only ones playing by the rules. Nothing will change until we acknowledge the problem. Continue to live in denial and keep blaming our problems on everything/anything else Indiana.
January 3rd, 2020 at 8:39 PM ^
At first I thought your shift key was broken or perhaps lazy, consistent lower case was part of the Michigan difference. But then I noticed you were able to go to the trouble of capitalizing Ohio, but apparently couldn't be bothered to capitalize Michigan. Glad to see we are worth the effort and respect but your Alma Mater is not. The namesake you use for your username deserves better.
January 3rd, 2020 at 10:20 PM ^
Stop. I can help you out with this:
The primary reason you lose a competative athletic competition is a combination of preparation, recognition, followed by a higher percentage of execution than your opponent.
It leads to more points, and you get to say you won.
You provided a sweeping listing of excuses that the competition was over before it started.
None of the moral high ground concerns you carry on about ever participate in the competition.
I will support my team (season tix/seat fees/tailgates/donations) My money, and after 25 years, I get to feel however I want. My team, my alma mater, my hobby, don't need your therapy.
This whole moral conspiracy mindset has been vomited continuously since the game and it is weakness, a virus.
Rage against the machine.
And guess what, I'll manage to get over losing without collapsing into self immolation. FFS
If I ever start saying " well you know, those systemic disparities really took us to the woodshed" , please put me down.
January 3rd, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
i prefer a jamaican lager anyway.
January 7th, 2020 at 9:06 AM ^
That was my favorite beer in college.
January 4th, 2020 at 12:45 AM ^
You said a lot of interesting things here, and some of those may indeed keep Michigan from consistently reaching the same level of play as Ohio State.
But 80-90% of the gap can be made up by plucking the low hanging fruit of more disciplined/error-free play, switching to the offense they just switched to, maintaining coherence in both the O and the D, practicing together as much as they possibly can, and probably some others.
My hope is that freer NIL rights allow M to make up the rest. On the other hand, I don't expect NIL alone to fix Michigan football. There are some things it needs to control inside itself to get into position.
January 4th, 2020 at 9:14 AM ^
Well said.
Needless to say sports success is mysterious complicated combination of prep, skill, focus, brotherhood/sisterhood, and pluck.
Soldier on, improve something every day. Laugh, bond and prepare.
Go Blue!
January 4th, 2020 at 9:28 AM ^
We should become the Leaders and Best in NIL rights. What is "hypocritical" about maximizing a player's legally obtained income?
January 4th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
sorry, that was unclear. that part is not hypocritical, and they should totally do that. just the overall continued participation in the exploitation of student athletes part, a larger hypocrisy that all major college sports programs participate in. just felt it should be acknowledged.
January 4th, 2020 at 9:30 AM ^
That’s a nicely written “integrity” post. A lot of fans want Michigan to hold the moral superiority advantage over the Buckeyes. I’m not one of them. I didn’t attend U of M so i’m not as emotionally invested in the reputation of the University. I’m a fan of Michigan sports programs, not necessarily the university as a whole. I want Michigan to be on equal footing as Ohio State when it comes to football. I want Michigan to beat Ohio State by any means necessary.
January 4th, 2020 at 10:11 AM ^
I find it hard to believe that during an undergraduate and graduate degree at Michigan that none of your professors taught you to capitalize the start of a sentence or proper noun. It may make me elitist and pedantic, but it really makes it hard to take anything you say seriously.
January 4th, 2020 at 1:00 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the OP's shift key is broken or is k d lang.
January 4th, 2020 at 1:50 PM ^
let's just say that i have a constant craving to go blue
January 4th, 2020 at 2:17 PM ^
They had the most talent in the nation this year and didn't even make the final game.
January 4th, 2020 at 3:37 PM ^
Losers whine.
January 4th, 2020 at 5:32 PM ^
I'll admit to not reading most of your screed, mainly because I saw where you were going. Just a friendly reminder that in early 2019, during the Adidas basketball trial, a financial advisor named Marty Blazer testified under oath that he paid Michigan football players.
Half your football team is in something called the General Studies program, which is chock full of hard hitting courses like Women's Studies, Eurasian Studies, and Screen Arts. Scoff at Justin Fields taking online courses; he's a business major. In years past, UM football players were also funneled into Kinesiology, which was found to be a safe harbor for those not capable of the rigors of a Michigan education.
It's all preaching to the deaf here, but the level of cognitive dissonance some fans display is so mind boggling, that I pipe up every once in awhile.
January 5th, 2020 at 1:28 AM ^
but the level of cognitive dissonance some fans display is so mind boggling, that I pipe up every once in awhile
Please continue to do so.
We need to root this bullshit out of the fanbase now. I've said it a million times before, it's not like Rashan Gary got a 32 on his ACT. These posters need to stop with the OSU/online class bullshit.
January 7th, 2020 at 9:22 AM ^
The only major difference between the Bachelor or General Studies degree and a Bachelor of the Arts degree is the foreign language requirement for the arts degree. If you had any intellectual curiosity, you'd know that, but no, you are a dickweed.
As for your moaning about Women's Studies, Eurasian Studies, and Screen Arts, how do you know those classes are easy? They may be easy at Online State, but what makes you think they are easy at Michigan?
January 7th, 2020 at 11:12 PM ^
What was the stat I saw (on this website, I believe)? 3% of matriculating freshmen end up choosing a Gen Studies major, while 50% of football players pick it.
I'm sure Screen Arts (and Cinema) is as tough as the stats, accounting, and finance courses Fields sees in the B School curriculum.
Dickweed.
January 8th, 2020 at 9:27 AM ^
So...you have no clue whether those classes are difficult at Michigan or not and seem to be slagging off anybody with a degree from the school of LSA.
You are just talking out of your ass; that said, I didn't expect any better from you.
Ponder this...how do you know Fields is doing his own work? You don't.
You should change your screen name here to 'Dickweed'; truth in advertising and all that.
January 8th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
While I've not taken online classes, I'd imagine there are controls on place to ensure the student is doing the work and taking the tests. I'm fairly certain that is done at big schools like OSU and community colleges like whichever you attended, Dickweed.
Your guy with the 9 Wonderlic was a Gen Studies major. Keep arguing that it isn't a safe harbor for revenue sport athletes and that everybody cheats except your guys.
January 10th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
Regardless of where I stand on the OPs post, the Marty Blazer take is lazy. He has no relation to Michigan Football, and was known to try to pay any player (regardless of school) that was going to be an NFL player, in order to gain their business once they made the league. He was not paying players to attend certain universities, therefore Marty Blazer was not a reason why talent would pick Michigan over another university.
He was not a fan of the university, not a friend of the program, a booster, alumni, etc. He was a business man (in Pennsylvania) I believe who was latching on to anyone he could (again regardless of school) in order to cash in big once they made the league.
January 10th, 2020 at 7:10 PM ^
We don't know when he contacted kids. It's obviously not after they declare, because that's all within the rules. I don't think it's a stretch at all to assume he's building relationships with kids early-ish in their collegiate careers. That said, he provided a list of a handful of schools where he paid athletes, meaning he probably targeted certain schools, Michigan among them.
Please note here that my only objective is to show this stuff happens everywhere. Is it an indictment of Michigan's athletics dept.? No, it may well be that in addition to not knowing that they had no real way to know some rogue advisor was paying kids. It's the whole "our kids don't cheat like everyone else" train of thought that some here have that get my eyes rolling. The big schools, OSU and UM included, are fighting over the same kids. Sometimes you get an angel, sometimes you get a kid who (rightfully, imo) takes money, sometimes you get a kid who ends up being a criminal.
January 10th, 2020 at 10:24 PM ^
Half of the Buckeye posters here make up their supposed statistics on Michigan majors among football players, and the other half don't talk about it at all.
January 4th, 2020 at 5:37 PM ^
Through "firm handshakes" and gaining commitments from top recruits through compensation, I believe Alabama, under Saban, started the current trend we see today. A handful of teams with resources have decided to join the arms race, and yes, part of that equation includes turning a blind-eye to the term student-athlete. If you buy yourself three or four top 50 recruits each year, it doesn't take a mathematician to figure the enormous advantage over an entire recruiting cycle. The top teams have elite athletes all over the field, and its no accident they are mostly ending up at a few select schools. Its frustrating for sure, but I'm okay with UofM not joining this race. Go Blue!
January 4th, 2020 at 5:47 PM ^
Thanks, DenardinSpace. The University of Michigan is a world-class educational institution — in fact and international reputation, not the pr hype of most schools — with good and sometimes great athletics that give us pleasure or agita.
January 4th, 2020 at 5:47 PM ^
Thanks, DenardinSpace. The University of Michigan is a world-class educational institution — in fact and international reputation, not the pr hype of most schools — with good and sometimes great athletics that give us pleasure or agita.
January 4th, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
Skimming through your tome, I find it interesting that you capitalize OSU and not "michigan."
January 4th, 2020 at 8:43 PM ^
This, like everything on this blog, is pathetic and sad.
January 5th, 2020 at 1:35 PM ^
one of the better self-owns in recent memory
January 5th, 2020 at 10:45 AM ^
Ohio Sports is a cynical institution, we are a romantic one. they pay their stars while still exploiting them. we romanticize a wonderful football past. we feel entitled to relive the glory of our past. they feel entitled to the present at any cost.
I guess I have to hold out hope player compensation will change things, but my hunch is we will follow the new rule to the letter, which prevents using it for recruiting which is where we need it most, and other schools like OSU & the SEC will find ways to skirt around the rules and use it to lure all the top 100 players and things will keep going as they have for the past 15 years.
i think that because of these things, michigan fans have to decide whether they want to be another meaningless place that takes the easiest path towards winning, or if they feel there is something unique about michigan that's worthy of support despite being worse at football than our rival.
As just a fan and not an alum like you, I'm in the former. I just want to beat our rivals again.
i am in the latter category, having completed both undergrad and graduate degrees at michigan, and having experienced what makes michigan special. i value this more than winning at all costs.
I think there's room for you and other alum to hold onto your experiences while still allowing football players to have a different one. After all, I'm sure Rashan Gary did not have the same educational experience you did.
i don't know if there's a direct trade-off between these dynamics, but i know that i'd probably be a lot less interested in football if my team's coach was a piece of shit like urban meyer.
While I'm not Meyer fan, I also don't think Day is a piece of shit. I think you can still be a decent guy and win without pretending these kids have to be great students. I'm guessing the majority of the football scholarship guys do not fit the same resume as other UM students in terms of HS GPA, SAT scores, etc. So, if we can admit what they bring to the university is football ability, why not make their course work a little easier so they can focus on football more?
this is still much better than rooting for a fucking sham run by liars who will go to any length to maximize profit, including covering up domestic violence, and whose aim is to extract as much wealth as possible from 17-22 year olds.
Let's be real though, you root for UM because you went to school there, that's all. There are plenty of good people that went to OSU for school and were not athletes. I know plenty of them in the exercise science world that were professors of mine at other schools. My vet is also a MSU grad and she roots for them despite their downfalls because she went there. Yes there are differences between the schools, but the main reason you root for UM is because that's where you went to school just like the main reason I do is because my dad went there and I grew up with it. If you and my dad attended different places we'd probably root for them regardless of their shortcomings. It's like UM is free from guys with questionable ethics (see Rich Rod, Taylor Lewan, Frank Clark, Brendan Gibbons, etc.).
which begs the question: given all that we know, why would anyone want to be like Ohio Sports University in the first place?
Because that's the culture they grew up with and consider part of their identity. I think that culture, sense of identity, ego, etc. is stronger than the logical questions you bring up. Personally I'd like to see our football team move a little further away from academics and more towards a football academy and let the real students be students and stop pretending football players should be interested in school. I played college baseball and although I took my studies seriously I was never truly interested in anything other than sports. Eventually I became a PE teacher and strength coach and got my masters in exercise science, but only because I wasn't good enough to be a professional. But, if I had the ability to be a professional athlete I sure as heck would have. I'm guessing many of these athletes are the same as sports were always the place we received the most reward and recognition from. It's only natural they would be considered their priority ahead of school. So, why not allow them to focus on the real reason they are they if they have a legitimate shot at the NFL. That won't be the entire roster, but it could be 1/3 of it.
January 5th, 2020 at 1:34 PM ^
this is a great response, i don't know why anyone would neg it. thanks for the perspective.
i actually wonder if there could be a space in the middle where we could as an institution be the ones engaging in the professional training of athletes as a legitimate course load. maybe an entire major tailored more towards the trade of being a professional athlete. if staee can have a whole program devoted to shipping and logistics, why can't we have an academic program tailored for pro sports, clearly a more lucrative field? why is it okay for like, doctors to tailor their bulk of their course work to "pre-med" when folks who want to choose careers in professional sports often have to cobble together classes from communication, kinesiology, etc?
just seems like an obstacle that could have a realistic solution within the framework of academic integrity. that would certainly flatten the academic disparity that makes us ignore talented kids because their math SAT sucks or some stupid shit that doesn't actually matter.
also i hope it goes without saying that there is always heavy dose of sarcasm when talking about how everyone in ohio is a monster and whatnot -- i do not actually think this.
January 6th, 2020 at 7:25 AM ^
i actually wonder if there could be a space in the middle where we could as an institution be the ones engaging in the professional training of athletes as a legitimate course load. maybe an entire major tailored more towards the trade of being a professional athlete.
I think that would be a great option for athletes. They'd still obviously have to meet the general education requirements of a liberal arts degree, but their focus study could involve some basic exercise science, some injury and rehab information, nutrition, etc. Another key component would be finance and investment. Maybe have a sports agent teach a course on what to look for and what the athletes has for responsibility in that relationship.
also i hope it goes without saying that there is always heavy dose of sarcasm when talking about how everyone in ohio is a monster and whatnot -- i do not actually think this.
I'm sure, but if we are going to give "them" shit about how they act it would be hypocritical to turn around and do the same thing. Good people are good people regardless of who they chose to root for and as I said many of us would probably be rooting for someone else in different life circumstances. Culture, proximity, and chance are just as much a part of who we root for as the institutions themselves.
January 6th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^
"Good people are good people regardless of who they chose to root for and as I said many of us would probably be rooting for someone else in different life circumstances."
This is very true in my personal experience. I honestly don't want to go to a game in Columbus. They seem to act like turds in a mob. That said, the Buckeye's I've met in my professional life have been smart, courteous, and polite. Spielman is one of my favorite players period. I always thought he was a heck of a guy on and off the field. Go figure.
I think that would be a great option for athletes. They'd still obviously have to meet the general education requirements of a liberal arts degree, but their focus study could involve some basic exercise science, some injury and rehab information, nutrition, etc. Another key component would be finance and investment.
I'm 1000% in favor of this. How many times do we read about players who go on to get huge contracts then lose it all through bad investments/ being manipulated/ etc. You have some guys who come from poor backgrounds who make enough money to start generational wealth and it's gone in 10 years.
To be honest I wouldn't mind having a resource available for professional athletes after they leave/graduate to help them lock in their money for the long term. Let the Ross business folks create an office for professional athlete alums.
The idea that some of these guys just get used irks the hell out of me. And yes, I know, many make stupid decisions. Give me a few million at the age of 21 and there is a decent chance I'd be dead; and I grew up with a stable family in a safe environment. Young people sometimes do dumb things.
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