I’ve always been slightly skeptical about the pedestal that the NCAA places the student-athlete model on. They go out of their way to protect players from corporate sponsors and have incredibly strict rules regarding recruiting. Yet at the same time the NCAA rakes in billions from their own sponsorships and TV deals and the college recruiting game often finds itself in the darker shades of the grey area. The desire to keep college athletics from being a business seems genuine but also a bit naïve.
CBS Sports is thus wading in murky waters over their decision to allow fans to draft actual players from any Division 1 team in college fantasy football. In the past, the NCAA has steadfastly protected its athletes’ names and genuine likenesses. NCAA spokesman Chuck Wynne expressed concern “about the use of athletes’ names and how it impacts their eligibility.” But CBS stands by its decision as it will add increased realism and will improve fans’ overall experiences when they can draft an actual player instead of “Michigan RB 1.” It will be interesting to see how this plays out. A court ruling this past June found that MLB does not possess exclusive rights to players’ names and stats. This precedent obviously strengthens CBS’s stance.
To me, CBS’s move is hardly surprising. As companies look to deliver increasingly realistic and interactive products one could see this idea coming. Personally I have little issues with it. After all, the major sports magazines are running wild with pre-season analysis of college teams which certainly contain athletes’ names. It seems to me that Division 1 lost the model of the true student-athlete when games began being shown on TV and sponsors and marketers came pouring in. Perhaps the only true student-athletes are to be found at the Division 3 level where no athletic scholarships are awarded and athletes miss games to take exams.
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4 comments:
Miss games? More like reschedule on your own time homie.
haha maybe at a subpar school such as yours... how did vassar tie cmc? preposterous!
No, I can see Andrew's point... I work at Hope International University (talk about "off the radar" sportswise) and live three blocks from USC (talk about "elephantine hype" sportswise) and have a private client at UCLA (um, no comment, sportswise). I attended a Div3 school myself, for undergrad: my collegiate sport was fencing.
The HIU kids are true student-athletes in the sense of 50 years ago: both athletics and scholarly achievement are equally important to them. If you play for the Trojans or Bruins or another Division 1 or 2 school, in a sport with
1. major, or even "middling," media coverage
2. major, or even "encouraging," marketing/sponsorship income
...conventional wisdom says you've found your first career-- SPORTS. Don't blow that opportunity by letting your undergrad grades get in your way. In contrast, the HIU athletes play for the love of the game, play because they are passionate about the sport. There is no chimera of a pro sports career to distract them from their career dreams (which depend on their academic achievement) nor to sully their competitive play.
Can you blame them?
...oops, to pick up where I left off:
Can you blame the Div1 athletes for putting sport ahead of academics? I don't.
Collegiate sports (the ones everyone watches, anyway!) are a new onramp to professional sports careers. Imagine the high school star who gets a fat scholarship to OSU and barely (perhaps "suspiciously") scrapes by academically while pouring himself/herself into their sport: basically, that university offers a distinct "degree" program in pro sports.
I respect that. I sucked at math and did all I could to avoid accounting, stats, calculus, etc. while pouring myself into my chosen field. I was not a well-rounded student academically: I neglected subjects I didn't like and aced those I loved. I barely graduated in 4 years, but I had more credits than I needed in my major, and a resume that looked great... from one angle, the one I wanted to pursue!
I think that's very similar to the first guy I described. I knew what I loved and pursued it; so does the Div1 athlete. We just don't think of the AD as "Dean of Sports". Maybe that's exactly what he is. Think of being a draft pick as the sports equivalent to graduating with departmental honors in another discipline.
In this case, Hope International University (or CMC, or Vassar) obviously don't offer that course of study.
Just the opportunity to play because you love it.
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