Well according to the USC Insider the football teams GPA went down from 2.4 to 2.36 this past semester. USC Grades While at the same time the Irish Football team completed it's 5th straight semester of GPA over 3.0, GPA 3.0 and we just picked up our trophy from the Football Coaches Association for Academic Achievement having the #1 ranking in Graduation (shared with Northwestern) Rate (95%) for the class entering in the fall of 2001 (a Bob Davie group) FCAAA Award You know USC really is a good school academically, they have highly rated business programs, engineering programs, med school, dental school etc. But any kid who goes there for football is getting short changed they aren't participating in those good academics, they are just getting by and playing football. Yet another reason to hate USC!! Not that we Irish need any more reasons!! 8) 8) 8) 8)
Yes, but they do get to go to the awards shows and the parties at the Playboy Mansion 8) Gratis, of course.
I have a problem with this statement... I've heard it before, so I'm not taking issue with Terry specifically. As a regular Joe in school I made the choices of what I took, and when. It was up to me... MY CHOICE. There are support mechanisms, and stuff but most of it has to be USED by the student - it doesn't come looking for them. SO... if any student, be it athlete or not isn't making it, or is having a hard time it is up to THEM to seek out the resources that will make things better. Why does everyone seem to think college athletes should be coddled? If they want a good education, they work for it. If not, the "get by" or just flunk out. That's life.
To me it's part of the bargin, they get free tuition, room and board and academic assistance in the form of study halls, tutors, class scheduling help and that sort of thing. In return they work 20 hours a week and play in front of a packed stadium (hopefully) earning the University money. While I would agree that you can't and shouldn't assign a personal mentor to each football player to get him up and going in the AM to class to make sure he does his assignments and all that sort of thing. But I think it's the right thing to do to set a tone for your program that you expect them to make it to class and follow up on these things. However I wouldn't be surprised if lax academic expectations are a plus for a school like USC. Certainly the level of recruit that they are getting has expectations of playing in the NFL and earning NFL money. So they probably don't really care about academics beyond staying eligible, and maybe for a lot of kids the level of academic commitment at ND is more than they want.
Speaking of NOT making the grades.... ND starting defensive tackle Pat Kuntz is rumored to be out of school at this semester and hoping to be back in the fall. A defection of a different kind... :x
At ND there are consequences to not making the grade, I like his determination to correct the problem and come back though.
Hopefully he can make up the course(s) at Ivy Tech during the spring semester and get back to campus in the summer. I'm guessing that he would need to attain at least a predetermined minimum grade level in the makeup course(s) to gain re-admittance. Ivy Tech is the renamed and restructured statewide Indiana Vocational Technical College. Its curriculum has been transformed into a combination college/vocational curriculum very similar to community colleges in other states like Florida, California, etc.
I agree with Terry and do want my coach to push academics. Meyer does that and the GPA of our football team has risen consistently under him, I believe last semester it was 2.93 which is up pretty good since he's been there.