NCAA Probing Wrong Orifice Again in Derrick Rose Investigation

The Chicago Sun Times reported last week a Chicago public school inspector general report indicated four students at Simeon High School received grades changes in transcripts sent to universities for admission.

It was also alleged one of the students had a stand in take his SAT. It is speculated this player is Rookie of the Year and former University of Memphis guard Derrick Rose.

The NCAA has been investigating the allegation determined to show no 18 year old kid is above the law of academic minimums and standards.

Once again the NCAA is looking up its own ass for a hemorrhoid it cannot remove with a scalpel.

University of Memphis AD R.C. Johnson and former head coach John “Campari” Calipari have already distance themselves from any wrong doing, or more precisely admitted ignorance to the incident in question.

If the NCAA determines the school had no knowledge of the incident there likely will be no sanctions on the University, but the school would forfeit the 38 wins from the ’07 season.

Rose will probably be banned from the University. And the entire Tiger fan base will be subjected to NCAA brain washing techniques to have any memory of the wins removed from their minds.

Now we can all go back to the business as usual.

Ridiculous.

Let us suppose guilt before innocence on the Simeon players and the school teacher and absolve University of Memphis of any wrong doing for argument sake.

What has the NCAA accomplished? Have they prevented another young athlete, ill-equipped to pass a standardized test and lacking the foresight to see the benefit of performing well in class, from doing exactly the same thing to gain scholarship admission into an university?

Exactly the opposite.

The four teenagers cheated. They cheated on the Kobiashi Maru of the college sports—an un-winnable scenario where poorly educated scholastic athletes are stuck between the education system and the hypocrisy of the NCAA.  

Captain Kirk showed the Star Fleet command this hypocrisy and rewarded with the command of a starship much the same way Rose got to go to the NBA, but the other kids are going to be banished to the neutral zone.  

Rose passed admission minimums, went to Memphis and parlayed the Memphis’ final four train into the top overall pick and signed a contract which probably will allow him to live comfortably the rest of his life.

The person that will be hurt the most by the infraction is not the high school or the universities that provided scholarships, but Rose’s former teammates, marginal athletes whose ability to turn their athletics gifts into a degree may be there only opportunity for success.

So what the NCAA has accomplished is deny a athlete the ability to mature and realize he can parlay his athletic ability into a education.

If you think that sounds farfetched let’s follow the other basketball players named in the investigation.

Kevin Johnson and Tim Flowers both played with Rose and went to play for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Johnson is currently serving time in Kane County (IL) prison for armed robbery. And Tim Flowers transferred and was expecting to play at Chicago State.

Jonson made his own bed, but a common one for high school athletes whose abilities do not deliver professional success and whose academic shortcomings prevent them from completing their degree.

Flowers is more the norm. As he matures his childhood dreams of playing professionally will dissipate into the reality of the rewards of a college degree. Now under investigation if it is determined he is guilty of the allegations his best attempts to further his college career is probably lost.

With dismissal from the university that received the bogus transcript a forgone conclusion, even if he could afford to go back and simply work toward a degree they cannot. A transfer with academic dismissal on the transcript would make even a community college leery of admission.

It is unlikely Chicago State will provide a scholarship to a player under found guilty of the academic transgression because of pressure and scrutiny from the NCAA and its own academic advisory.

And with each passing year, redemption only makes him older and rusty and less enticing to schools.  Now he is back home at mom’s place with no degree looking for work with no skills outside of basketball in the worst job market in 80 years.

Let us look at it from the teacher’s point of view.

I am an English teacher at Simeon  High School. Rose and the others are nice kids, not as interested in reading A Separate Pieceas the better students but good kids. But of all the students in the class including Mary Sue Smith who just loved Hedda Gabbler, these three have best chance of going to college because of basketball.

If I give them a D they are done. No college. No chance at an education and likely life on the streets or a minimum wage existence. So what do I do after my moral tossing and turning in bed at night? You’re darn right I give the kid a C and give him a chance.

High Schools have a hard enough job teaching teenagers, who are more concerned whether they are going to play ball, or make out with Julie, after school than Hedda Gabbler. And the ones in the poorer neighborhoods are not equipped to teach teenagers on an equal playing field as those in more affluent areas.

Ask President Obama this is one of his main points of education reform. So kids are going to “pass” high school with different levels of academic acumen. That is the world we live in. It is a social problem and not one that a bunch of guys in Kansas are equipped, or willing to fix.

Is there any reason to go into the standardized test scenario? No because the school curriculums are not standardized. The test has its place if elite institutions want to differentiate between top tier students, but to forbid a student from being awarded a athletic scholarship to attend a university because he failed to reach a minimum requirement is ridiculous.

I do not know the answer to a complex problem but . . .

Stop determining these kids career path and holding them responsible for decision they make at 16 years old. Even our legal system wipes the slate clean at the age of 18.

Remove academic minimums from student athletes.

If a college decides to admit a student with marginal grades and awards him an athletic scholarship, well now the guys in Kansas can start making their policy. A kid should be required to maintain the same GPA the rest of the student body is required to maintain in order to continue at the university.

Now it becomes the university responsibility to provide any additional tutelage a student athlete would need to maintain his playing status.

Unlike public high schools which are funded through local taxes, universities benefit from state funding, endowments, boosters and its athletic departments. They have tremendous resources and are far better equipped to educate.

And there are plenty of academically enriched students who would love work study money to tutor a future NBA player, or even a kid who can dunk and wants to become a physical therapist.

This is really where the scholarship contract between the university and the athlete is earned. The student has traded his athletic skills in exchange for the university’s skill in educating.

If the NCAA stopped trying to portray these kids as equal parts student and athlete, we might actually achieve the ultimate goal of turning athletes into students. Who know one of these kids might go on to write the next Hedda Gabbler.