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When NCAA schools abandon their injured athletes - fullmetal - 05-02-2013

Great read, painful stories.  There should be sanctions for this sort of unethical, if not immoral, institutional behavior.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/i-trusted-em-when-ncaa-schools-abandon-their-injured-athletes/275407/?single_page=true

Re: When NCAA schools abandon their injured athletes - OutsiderFan - 05-02-2013

I don't feel particularly sorry for athletes who get the short end of the stick like this.  Nobody has a gun to their head telling them to accept the risks associated with playing at these sports-first schools, and it is buyer beware.  The parents might want to actually look into things and do their diligence before trusting a recruiter.

The Pac-12 California schools should benefit greatly from the regulations protecting student athletes in California.  I'm not sure about other schools, but when a Cal player retires due to a medical issue, he is still allowed to stay on scholarship to complete his degree.  Why the better athletes put playing in bigger stadiums where sports are more important culturally, over things like protections for themselves, is beyond my understanding.



Re: When NCAA schools abandon their injured athletes - FarmBoy - 05-02-2013

I don't know Stanford's policy, but this story always sticks with me:

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=34625

We honored Joe Kay's scholarship despite his stroke near the end of high school. He hadn't even stepped on campus yet. But I don't know if we converted it to a non-athlete scholarship or what the rules on that are. Scholarships are a limited resource. I wonder how flexible the NCAA is in allowing you to convert athletes to non-athletic scholarship and not count towards your limit (or trigger Title IX issues.)

The practice of over-signing and yanking scholarships seems horribly unethical. On the other hand, scholarships are very expensive and limited, and if a student is no longer able or willing to perform, it makes sense that they should be subject to the same constraints that the rest of the student population faces. Lots of scholarships are performance based. If you don't maintain your GPA, you lose your scholarship. Should athletics be different?

Re: When NCAA schools abandon their injured athletes - Farm93 - 05-02-2013

Sure lots of scholarships have terms.  The difference is the lack of freedom.  If a music department decides that a drummer is not up to their standards, has lost their mojo, or whatever, then that kid can go across town and play for the next school if they want to offer a ride.  (think Nick Cannon in Drumline)

However, in D1 sports the athletes can't leave without sacfricing eligibility.  So even if an underclassman is horrified by the school's treatment of upperclassmen and wants to transfer, that student likely will elect to stay because of penalties associated with leaving.

If schools can treat the players like commodities, then the players should be able to do the same thing.  If that freedom to transfer was available then I would be more willing to support a caveat emptor philosophy. 

Re: When NCAA schools abandon their injured athletes - fullmetal - 05-02-2013

Doctors didn't give athletes complete diagnoses or withheld information from their patients.  The kid didn't even know he'd had a c-spine injury!  This is a ridiculously clear case of exploitation and malpractice.