The life lesson for the NCAA: Grant spring sport athletes an additional year
The Hypocrite Train is currently taking passengers, and it’s overflowing with the Presidents of Division I universities and major college conference commissioners.
The ticket is free for these six and seven-figure earners: Just stand against for what you preach, “opportunity for young people,” and you’re aboard.
“It’s an intellectually fascinating time,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said on Thursday in a conference call. “It’s also heart-breaking.”
Two weeks ago, when sports started to cancel en masse, the popular thought was that the NCAA would grant an extra year of eligibility for all student-athletes who play spring sports.
Most people who play spring sports, such as baseball, tennis, golf, softball and track, were, at most, a few games into their 2020 seasons. There was even faint talk of extending the offer to winter sport athletes, some of whom were denied the chance to play for an NCAA basketball title in March Madness.
Then the financial estimates started to be tabulated. Now that extra year of eligibility is in danger.
Although both NCAA Division II and the National Junior College Athletic Association have announced that spring sport athletes have been granted an extra year of eligibility, the biggest class in college athletics is not there.
The men and women who want to come back with their basketball teams for a run at the NCAA Tournament are likely done.
Now there is loud chatter that the spring sport athletes will lose their season, too. That 2020 will simply be a lost year for everyone.
The solution is easy: Do the right thing and grant all of the “springers” one more year if they want.
On Monday, the NCAA is scheduled to vote whether student-athletes will be granted an exemption and an extra year of eligibility.
There is still a decent, not overwhelming, chance for the seniors to be granted an extra year; people associated with a college extra curricular activity from the band to softball to tennis to cheerleading and everything else will lose out, too.
“The economic reality of this is setting in,” TCU director of athletics Jeremiah Donati said Thursday. “It’s March 26, and who knows what this looks like April 26? I would love it for the kids. I think it’s the right thing, but it’s not without a lot of complications.”
Early estimates, to cover these sorts of costs, would mean an additional $1 million in expenses, at least, for an athletic department or university.
And these expenses are against the unprecedented losses the NCAA, and nearly all college conferences, are facing with the cancellations of March Madness and other postseason tournaments. This is not the time to be adding expenses.
There is no universally agreed upon answer for this among the coaches.
For TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, he wants the waiver. He has eight seniors and he said they have all told him they will come back.
One of the major hangups to this exemption, for baseball, is the MLB draft. No spring season in college or high school will dramatically affect whether a player turns pro, or waits one more year.
Bowlsby is an advocate for the NCAA to wait. He prefers the NCAA fall sports are not affected before any policy is in place.
Another 30 to 45 days to see what will happen is prudent.
According to people familiar with the situation, there is a growing number of university presidents — the ones who will ultimately make this decision — who are taking this opportunity to give these kids a “life lesson.”
That sometimes life simply is not fair.
Mighty convenient for these people to take this opportunity to teach this lesson when they are the ones who benefit the most. I thought college athletics are supposed to teach the life lesson?
There is no business model more reckless with spending than a university. Check that. Behind the United States government, there is no business model more reckless with spending than a university.
The school will simply raise the price of tuition, student fees, etc. to cover their costs, which typically include their bloated salaries.
University presidents serve schools that exist for the young person to build a better life. Yet these institutions have no problem asking these students, or their families, to take on potential life-altering debt.
In granting an extra year these schools will create headaches for themselves, while providing the opportunity the students earned.
That’s the life lesson that matters.
