Friday, May 10, 2013

Pulling scholarships

I have mixed feelings on the subject of coaches pulling recruits' scholarships because of underperformance. (I have NO problems with them pulling schollys for misbehavior of whatever kind.) After all, many, if not most, academic scholarships are contingent on the student maintaining a certain grade point average. In other words, if the student does not perform to a certain level, the scholarship is gone. So to that extent, I understand.

The problem is that the basketball player was recruited. It was the coach that assessed his ability in the first place. That is not true in an academic situation. As long as the player is working hard, why should he be penalized because of the coach's inability to determine talent.

On the other hand, athletics is perhaps the only discipline in which the coach's livelihood is directly and immediately affected by the student's performance. So, if the coach is to be held responsible for the team's performance, should he not be allowed to upgrade that performance as a whole?

There are points on both sides.

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