My rant about academics in the SEC (Thank you Morris Claiborne)

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/03/claiborne-gives-birth-to-a-four-on-the-wonderlic/

Ok, I've been saving a rant and just waiting for the right opportunity to do it. Thank you Morris Claiborne. With your recent score of FOUR on the wonderlich test, you have proven yet again that academics aren't important in SEC football anymore. How does one obtain a 4 on the wonderlich test? Seriously.  It brings into question the education he received while in college. It brings serious doubt into my mind about the standard in which these student athletes are being judged by. I'm assuming he kept himself eligible through college, but one must wonder if these universities are just passing these kids along. Claiborne is just one of a long line of SEC kids who have bombed this test, this has been going on for quite some time.

I'm not here to tell you that the wonderlich is a great test of intelligence, I'm just here to tell you that an average intelligence 12 year old would do better than Morris Claiborne. People will be quick to point out that AJ Green scored a 10 on the wonderlich, and look how well he turned out. To say that, however, is completely missing my point. Is his success in the NFL the true measure if he's doing ok? Sooner or later, these young men won't be able to play football anymore, and they will have to fall back on something. More and more these days, we're hearing that these guys are flat broke shortly after their careers. It's because they aren't getting an education, they are being used for athletics. You don't hear about this as much in other conferences, because the emphasis on education is the first priority. What do National Championships mean, when more players than you'd think could have problems spelling championship?

I'd be willing to be you that a large amount of the players who reportedly are broke now after their careers, are SEC conference players. You don't see this in other conferences, because other conferences haven't sold their souls to boosters. Joe Paterno has a quote that I love, when he was asked which was his best class. When asked he says "I don't know yet, I want to see what kind of men they become." That really says it all, he didn't really care what kind of NFL careers they had, he wanted to know what kind of people they would become. That doesn't exist at a lot of SEC schools, because at the end of the day, winning is all that matters

I'm in the very small minority of SEC fans who will admit to you how big of a problem this is. But it's a running joke, and the NCAA needs to look further into it, because it's a massive problem.