File This One Under: Career Suicide

I've never been afraid to speak my mind. Some say I should keep my mouth shut. I disagree -- I can only be myself, and I am outspoken. It's shows strength, it shows resiliency, and it shows that I will not be intimidated by anyone or anything.

The following is my second response to Vent Casey's blog about Jericho Scott. Vent responded on his blog in agreement with my first reply, and then added that ESPN and their coverage of youth events like the Little League World Series are adding to the pressures that adults are putting on the next generation.

While it may cause me to be blackballed by possible employers because of a very anti-media (probably not a wise decision for a broadcaster) tone, I agreed:

You are dead on about ESPN. Heck, they make a big deal over spelling bees, hotdog eating contests, and meaningless card games.

But here is the big one against ESPN. College athletics schedules. College football belongs on Saturdays… and maybe Friday nights. But these mid-week (Tuesday and Thursday) games are ridonkulous. On a Tuesday night, these young adults need to be in their dorms studying. Heck, on Tuesday morning (not to mention Wednesday, and every other weekday) they need to be in the classroom… LEARNING.

And don’t even get me started on college basketball, because that is an exercise in futility on so many levels.

I really question whether scholarship athletes are actually students anymore. It also doesn’t help that we constantly hear of recruiting violations, late-night indiscretions, and other behavior that suggest they think they are above anyone else.

I think they forget on major aspect of the life they live. Yes, God has given them this talent to do something better than anyone else — BUT that talent has opened the door for them to improve themselves, not in athletics, but in intangibles.

Fact is, many of the people we see on the gridiron, or on the hardwood are not typical college material. I gander many of them struggled just to meet academic requirements.

That is not to say that there aren’t some very intelligent athletes in the university system. However, the ones who make the headlines for what they do off the field are making those headlines because they have made a conscious effort to not be getting the education that their talents have earned them. They feel as if it is a privilege to play college sports. That’s only a partial truth. The other have of the equation is that it’s a privilege to have an education all but handed to you because of your talents in other areas.

Now, I will admit that I am a little biased towards college hockey. Part of it is that I love hockey, and the other part is that I was a college hockey player, so I know the system.

To start, you don’t hear much about the indiscretions of college hockey players, because there are fewer college hockey programs in the nation than most other major sports. At the same time, college hockey is not a monopoly, like football and basketball are. College hockey has stiff competition from the major junior ranks, which provide another in-road to a professional sports career. A player with professional aspirations is more likely to go play major junior, than to go to college. College hockey players want to be in school, and want an education.

In all fairness, college baseball would be a similar situation, as players are often drafted out of high school and proceed directly to the professional ranks.

But where college hockey traditionally blows the other sports out of the water in academic friendliness that that college hockey teams generally play Friday-Saturday games every week. In most of the rare occurrences that you do have a mid-week game, it is often a local rivalry that do not require the players to be off campus for more than a couple hours. It is generally not disruptive to the learning environment.

Of course, ESPN shows maybe 5 college hockey games all year. OK, ESPN-U usually has a game a week… but still — you see more high school basketball games on ESPN than you do college (or even professional) hockey. And that is a major issue, very closely related to what started this conversation.

Now, I was a walk-on. Nothing was handed to me, except a seat on the bench. It was very easy for me to talk to my coaches and tell them that academics came first to me. In fact, in my once semester as a D-1 hockey player, I was excused to be late to Tuesday and Thursday practices because I had a class that ran up to the start of ice time. But, I wasn’t the only one.

Myles Brand and the NCAA need to get out of the money-making business. Yes, college sports do bring in financial assistance that normally wouldn’t exist. But, not enough of it is going to the schools. Most of it remains within the athletic programs. If the NCAA is truly interested in the academic side of the athletes, they need to grow a pair.

Instead of wasting time telling schools like Illinois and North Dakota that they need to change their mascots, they need to take on the image crisis they have from crawling into bed with ESPN. For all intents and purposes, Myles Brand is a prostitute — he sold himself, and the NCAA, for money instead of moral decency.

The NCAA needs to put their foot down. Tell ESPN that their broadcast schedule is secondary to the academic schedules of the 300,000 athletes in affiliated instiutions of higher learning. It’s a simple fix. Friday and Saturday nights are college sports night (volleyball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, lawn darts, baseball, softball, kickball, dodgeball, soccer, etc.). Sunday is NFL, Monday Night is Monday Night (yes, I meant to say that)… and the rest of the week there are plenty of PROFESSIONAL sports to air, filling the schedule: NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, CFL, WNBA, heck — minor league game of the week.

You know, mix it up — when was the last time professional volleyball players (and I’m not talking beach volleyball) were heard of outside of the Olympics? How about putting them in the spotlight more often?

And finally, to bring us back Jericho Scott, and the pressure being forced upon the youths of this nation. I take pride in how I became a college athlete. Some know my story, others don’t. Long and short of it — I played on one select team… my senior year of hockey, the local association put together a house league all-star team. We played a whole nine game schedule. My parents never pushed me to do something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t sacrifice my social life, or my parents finances to further my career, and my parents never had to play the politics that are so often prevalent. And yet, somehow, I can say that I was a Division-1 student-athlete in college.

…and I don’t care that I never played a minute during my D-1 career.