College Football "Student"-Athlete Comes Clean

[Eric]

From Ohio State. Just had to mention that, sorry Spence

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8466428/ohio-state-buckeyes-cardale-jones-tweets-classes-pointless

[Derek]

That's a guy that's gonna go FAR in life.

[Spence]

No problem. Ohio State was in the top 10% in APR scores. Jones had to go to prep school to get a chance to play football at Ohio State, if he still didn't get the message, he may find himself playing for a community college like Cris Carter's kid. Academics is something Ohio State has done pretty well in the last ten years.

[Eric]

Oh, I realize. Ohio State is a great school and 90+% of that team takes their studies seriously. I was just giving you a little jazz

[Spence]

Oh, I realize. Ohio State is a great school and 90+% of that team takes their studies seriously. I was just giving you a little jazz

I doubt the number is 90%, probably more like 60% Every school has those classes that they steer athletes toward. My dad played Basketball for Ohio University in the 50's and they tried to get him to take some of those "cake" courses. He knew he had no chance to play pro ball so he took classes toward a degree. Lots of these kids, though, have visions of playing in the league. The only reason they came to school was to play ball and get drafted. Cordale Jones is a great athlete, but he will never play QB at Ohio State. He can't learn the playbook. His priorities are going to get him a one way ticket back to Cleveland.

[warrriorsfan808]

WOW! Who do I talk to to get his scholarship! I'll be happy to hold a clipboard, tackling dummy, mow the grass, paint lines on the field, to get an education I could live with that!

[Spence]

WOW! Who do I talk to to get his scholarship! I'll be happy to hold a clipboard, tackling dummy, mow the grass, paint lines on the field, to get an education I could live with that!

Exactly. One of these days he will figure out that school was an opportunity not a hassle.

[Spence]

I guess he got suspended for a game - he doesn't play so I'm not sure how big a punishment that was - Meyer did say he was going to classes and doing pretty well. They said he was frustrated because of lots going on with classes and football and he spouted off that he would rather just play football. I guess there are probably lots of players with the same opinion. None of them will realize their misssed opportunity until it is gone.

[WoVeU]

Probably frustrated, has to be difficult for many.

Too many joke classes in schools, many, many, non-athletes take these too. The majority of degrees today aren't worth the paper they are printed on. But if football is 20 hours a week just to meet muster. I could not imagine a player getting an engineering degree (other than basic Civil) and excelling at both football and academics. (Red shirting and going the summer out of high school and all the ones that follow would make it manageable.) The kids who didn't cheat couldn't work more than 15 to 20 hours a week, a few years..if they leaned on other students they could pull a 3.3 to a 3.4 and learn a great deal.

[Spence]

Probably frustrated, has to be difficult for many.

Too many joke classes in schools, many, many, non-athletes take these too. The majority of degrees today aren't worth the paper they are printed on. But if football is 20 hours a week just to meet muster. I could not imagine a player getting an engineering degree (other than basic Civil) and excelling at both football and academics. (Red shirting and going the summer out of high school and all the ones that follow would make it manageable.) The kids who didn't cheat couldn't work more than 15 to 20 hours a week, a few years..if they leaned on other students they could pull a 3.3 to a 3.4 and learn a great deal.

Ohio State had a guy who did get an engineering degree. He was a walk on, but ended up starting and playing in the NFL (only a short time) I'm trying to remember his name. It wasn't very long ago. I will look it up an post it. But you are right. Lots of them take blow off coarses toward degrees that aren't worth anything, Andy Katzenmoyer had a collection of blow off courses and a 0.00 grade point his last quarter, before heading to the NFL. He got hurt and had nothing.

Ohio State has a program that allows former players who did not receive a degree to comeback later and finish at no cost to them. Katzenmoyer did that and ended up with a degree, but it was years after he should have gotten it. If not for that program, he would have screwed himself with his choices because he knew he was going to the NFL. No one knows the future.