White Cal xc/track athlete quits via screenshot because NCAA is racist; surprised coach doesn’t respond.

1. Your username is not registered, and is likely to have been used a million times as people randomly bash their keyboard.

2. Having to work your class schedule around your athletic schedule does not preclude one from getting a "real" education. Yes, it may limit your options for majors, but CAL has like 150 major options, and I'm sure a large number of them can work for athletes. As we are learning in the pandemic, there are options now for anyone to learn while not actually being in class. When I was in school, yes there were a couple of class sessions I had to miss for travel meets, and a few classes I couldn't take because they conflicted with practice time. But sometimes you sacrifice one thing to do another, and that is life.

3. I don't disagree that there are professors and administrators that let athletes get by with little or substandard work, and that's a problem. But that doesn't mean that an athlete CAN'T get a useful education while in college, it's that some choose not to.

4. Why would you complain, in your last sentence, that athletes get tutoring help that isn't available to the rest of the student population? I thought that was the point, we want these underserved athletes to have every opportunity to succeed? If they have all these time constraints, and miss class, wouldn't it make sense that they should have access to extra tutoring just for them? I agree that tutors should not be doing work for the athletes.

Hi - not going to respond to everything right now but have to call out the lie about a kid having to miss class for practice. 100% an NCAA violation and I highly doubt that's happening.

That was “like” painful to read. It was worth the struggle just to reach the 1500 race/breaking up with girlfriend non sequitur conclusion. The dude is certainly in love with himself. I can only imagine the joy his coach felt when he quit the team.

There is a reason why a distance based runner would run the 1500. It creates more speed and power than you can get from practice sessions. Racing a 1500 is highly beneficial for your 5K and 10K success. Even high schoolers know that if you are a Miler, you probably are going to run the 800 or 400 from time to time to build up speed in a competitive environment. To say he wasn't any good in it is really silly. I wonder if he complained at practice about doing 200s because he didn't have fast twitch.

That is happening.

Of course it is a good thing for them to run 1500s. I always encourage athletes to run under-distance races in advance of target races so that the pace of the latter seem easy. His complaint's not a serious one. There are a lot of classes missed by athletes in general for competitions. Tutors muddy the waters. You don't know who is doing what and the university's economic incentives lead to a lot of shenanigans with them. As for Cal classes, there is a very, very wide variety of classes, but that's not the issue for any given athlete, who is interested in one particular major and one particular class that conflicts with the sport. When you miss classes, you do worse. Plain and simple.

I don’t really care about any of this drama but please report to your dean of students if kids are missing class weekly for practice. That is a clear NCAA violation and I would be shocked if any competent coach let that happen. But if it is true it needs to be fixed!

jamesww wrote:

Do you approve of the way he quit?

No.

OK, so I'm going to backtrack a bit...I was writing under the assumption that Cooper was claiming that athletes CAN'T get a good education, but I just re-read the article, and that is not what he claimed. He claimed they WEREN'T getting a real education. In many instances, I suppose he's correct on that point.

I still stand by my point that you CAN get a great education as an athlete, though.

I do have to say, does Cooper really believe that the athletes need to organize to rectify this particular situation? Are football and basketball players going to stand up and say "Stop giving us easy classes! Stop giving us passing grades while not doing any work!"?

If that's what they want, they can change that today, right this second. The ones that want that are already doing it. The ones that don't want it will cease to be part of the system at all if it changes. Would that be a net benefit to those athletes or not? I honestly don't know, but it's not my place to say, it's theirs.

Did you morans even read the article?????

His whole point is supporting student athletes who are being exploited and College Athlete Entertainers should be getting $$$$PAID IN FULL$$$$.

Good for him! I support college kids getting PAID!! BILLIONS are generated every year from these college football and basketball athlete entertainers! Some college coaches are making millions! PAY THESE KIDS!!!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E7t8eoA_1jQ

I can't believe anyone other than the author's personal blog would ever publish such a hot load of trash.

This guy is like such a tool, it's unbelievable anyone would consider him like a useful or respected "leader" in the anti-amateur realm.

He needed like so many conversations with many professors and like hours of research to realize that the NCAA and amateurism is outdated? It's been that way for, like, decades!

This is a real masterpiece as well: "There’s no doubt in my mind—that was a historical Zoom call in and of itself. That Zoom alone was already further than anyone had ever gotten."

One zoom call to talk about "how we all feel" lead to more progress against amateurism than like anyone ever, in the history of the world!

There are issues with the NCAA and amateurism in general -- we don't need a pompous moron leading the charge and taking away from the actual problems.

I read the article objectively. I couldn't help but feel like this guy was the biggest douchey ahole of all time! What a shitty teamate! It wasn't enough for him to quit he had to do it the name of a cause--bullsh--! He just didn't have the stones to walk away when he realized he couldn't get it done. Oh by the way when I submit my resignation today, Ill make sure I do it in the name of Jesus' blind angels for lightbulbs cause, that way I wont have to deal with why i REALLY RESIGNED WHAT A LOAD OF SH--!! Cal is better off without this guy.

LRC Note. We added to the title to make it more descriptive.

"Athlete quits via screenshot; surprised coach doesn’t respond. "

That's confusing on multiple levels. No debate. But what does changing "athlete" to "white cal xc/track athlete" do to clarify? That has gotta be even more confusing. The intent of the edited thread title seems to be click-baiting.

2nd opinion wrote:

Question for you then - how far do we take this? Should HS athletes get a piece of the gate from a football game? I'm going to guess your answer will be no, that's different. The thing is, the premise is the same - parents, etc are paying to come see the players on the field. The same argument you make as to why college athletes should get the revenue from their respective sports. Now, what HS and college do with those funds is obviously quite different (gate receipt isn't paying the salary of the coach), but there are similarities - the money goes back into sports (I'm assuming - it's been a min since I was in HS). That's what colleges do!

Great points.

One of the problems I have with this whole NCAA exploits argument is that if you take it to its logical extension then all non-revenue sports should be abolished as should all women's sports. Yeah, lets get rid of all non-revenue sports and all women's sports.

Heck, why stop there? Let's cancel the drama department as well as they make people act for free. Oh wait, the drama people want to do it for free? As do many xc runners like this guy who admit it's part of their identity? No, they can't do it as they are being exploited.

The 'exploitation' - his words not mine - help one group and hurt another.

But let's go the other way and take a look at my alma mater, Princeton. Are the rich parents being exploited as they have to pay $80,000 a year to send their kids while many poor kids get to go for free? Should we make everyone pay 80k a year so no one gets exploited?

We can even extend this argument to business. If you work at apple and they pay you a salary but the company turns a profit, are you being exploited?

In terms of the exploitation of college athletes, I think it should be simple. The NBA, NFL, etc should allow kids to go pro out of HS. If they want to go pro, go ahead. If they want to go to college, go to college.

If anyone is causing the 'exploitation', it's really people like the NFL stars and NFL owners. Instead of paying for a developmental league, the NFL gets to have the NCAA do it for them. As a result, the pros who make it to the top get paid more.

The thing that pisses me off most about the NCAA exploits and is racist argument is that it's a lazy one. NCAA sports started when the athletes were almost all white. Now many of the athletes are black. Nothing really has changed except there is more revenue. But now when something disproportionately impacts a minority race than a majority race, people automatically cry racism. Were the white QBs of the 1960s being exploited as well? I guess by his logic the answer is yes but then clearly it's not because of race. Does he think if all of the best NCAA basketball and football players were white that the NCAA would be paying them?

Rojo

rojo wrote:

But let's go the other way and take a look at my alma mater, Princeton. Are the rich parents being exploited as they have to pay $80,000 a year to send their kids while many poor kids get to go for free? Should we make everyone pay 80k a year so no one gets exploited?

wtf are we talking about again?

he wont be missed. bye guy

The other basic problem with his argument is displayed on his twitter. He is ripping Minnesota for cutting it's track program because track and field provides more opportunities for minorities than any other Olympic sport.

However, if universities pay the 'exploited' basketball and football players, there will be no Olympic men's sports. He wants to have it both ways, but clearly doesn't realize his own contradictions.

Additionally, if the NCAA crumbles and college sports become professionalized, how would it affect women's sports?

College athletes should not be paid. College coaches should not make millions. Corporate brands and media conglomerates should not make billions off of college athletic contests.

The answer is easy: it is time to end college sports. Club teams are sufficient and there is no need to profit off the labor of these kids.

“Student-Athletes” - LOL...that’s a good one.

Men’s NCAA Football and Basketball should be dismantled entirely...make them club/minor league teams completely detached from the schools. Let’s hear it for the Tuscaloosa Crimson Tide and the Durham Blue Devils!!!

They’re not even remotely students...it’s always been a joke, now it’s just a complete farce, particularly with the one and done hoops model.

Everybody involved, yes, including the “Student-Athletes” are guilty of perpetrating this fraud.