Discussion on Academics and College Basketball

[Walking Boot of Doom]

With UNC, currently under investigation for potentially one of the largest academic scandals in NCAA history, and Syracuse, fresh off their post-season ban for improper benefits, drug issues, and academic violations (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/sports/ncaabasketball/syracuse-basketball-ncaa-penalizes-orange-and-suspends-jim-boeheim.html?_r=0), advancing to the Final Four, one might wonder where academics fall on the NCAA's list of priorities.

Chronic on Twitter had a similar take to my own upon seeing the NCAA's commercials during the Elite Eight games last night:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Riiiiiiiight. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuse?src=hash">#Cuse</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNC?src=hash">#UNC</a> <a href="https://t.co/1b8QSwQd50">pic.twitter.com/1b8QSwQd50</a></p>&mdash; Chronic Hoosier (@ChronicHoosier) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronicHoosier/status/714284444161585152">March 28, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

So, how can academics play a more important role in college basketball? Should it? How could both positive and negative academic performance be rewarded or punished?

As a starting point, what if teams were rewarded with a 14th scholarship for exemplary academic performance? Currently, teams are punished with a post-season ban if they do not meet the 930 APR benchmark (this article has a nice summary of the rules in the first couple paragraphs http://www.midmajormadness.com/2014/5/14/5717794/apr-postseason-ban-2014-2015-college-basketball-lamar-milwaukee-appalachian-state).

[Alford Bailey]

To me this UNC thing will tell the tale. Either the NCAA gets serious and drops the hammer or academics become an afterthought. I expect the latter.

[Kepner]

Yeah I expect UNC to get a slap on the wrist. Syracuse's issues went back years and they barely got any sort of punishment. The NCAA is a joke as far as integrity goes. 

[Hoosierfan2017]

In my opinion I don't think the NCAA cares about academics at all, so I don't see them ever rewarding schools for excellent academic performance. I like the idea of rewarding schools with a 14th scholarship, but a better system for determining academic performance would be needed. I mean, even UK gets great APR scores so I question how accurately it really measures academic performance. 

 

On a side note, I'm proud of how seriously IUBB takes academics. I've got a 9:30 am class with Hartman and he's been there every day, even the mornings after late road games. I would imagine the same is true for our other guys. It's nice to see IU honoring their commitment of educating these guys instead of simply trying to keep them eligible with bogus classes.