Playing Hookie On Campus - May 5, 2008
College Basketball, College Football, College Sports, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, May 5, 2008 - 1:46 pm
A occasional column on the state of American college sports on this 3rd Rock from the Sun.
- Chris Lofton played an entire season with cancer. Right, CANCER. He went through surgery, radiation therapy and still played the game. Along the way, he led Tennessee to a #1 ranking and a Sweet Sixteen berth. Most importantly, he beat cancer. We can be cynical about the lives of college student-athletes but when just one story like this comes along, it’s a strong reminder of their strength, perseverance and courage. Lofton may not want to be a role model; after all, he hid his illness but he is one.
- Brother SK has already opined about the BC Madness but let me blow one more hole in the conference commissioners’ arguments. If they want to continue to grow the game, a playoff has to be the way to go. A four-team playoff would attract legions more bettors, I mean, fans than the current system. Look what the NCAA tournament has done for college basketball.
- Now I’m not a huge fan of a playoff. I think it does cheapen, to an extent, the regular season. Only fans of Georgetown will remember the Hoyas’ Big East regular season title and not their colossal upset by Davidson in the Tourney. But when you can’t have a balanced schedule (ala the English Premier League or other club leagues in world futbol), the best way to determine a champion is by a playoff.
- Jim Boeheim favors expanding the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to 128 teams! Ridiculous. In fact, I’d shrink it to include only the conference regular season and tournament champions. If you can’t win your conference, you shouldn’t play for the overall championship.
- Athletes are tall. Ok you knew that but how often do you run into a 6′5″, 205lb wide receiver who runs a 4.65 forty-yard dash. I had the misfortune of being in the same T-Mobile store as West Virginia WR Wes Lyons this weekend. But I was too blinded by hatred and awe to say anything to the former Woodland Hills high school star.
- With this year’s glut of one-and-done’s draining college basketball rosters, detractors of the NBA’s eligibilty rule point to the examples of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant having been ready for the Pro’s right after high school. Be that as it may, the NBA is still entitled to put qualifications on its hiring (read: draft) policies. If they want kids one year removed from high school, that’s their right as long as it’s part of collective bargaining with the NBPA. In fact, I don’t think the NBA has gone far enough. Why not just require kids to go to college for at least 3 years before moving on to the Pro’s. It’s not just about physical maturity. These kids need intellectual maturity as well.
- Kudos to LSU for kicking Ryan Perrilloux off the team. Talented though he may be, Perrilloux’s inclusion on this year’s team would have turned the Bayou Bengals into a media circus act after his last run-in with the law.
Spot on about the NBA age minimum. It’s helped weed out the Kwame Browns of the world, and gives the athletes a small dose of reality. The NFL has an age minimum and last I checked, that league is doing just fine. I’d increase it to two years… any more than that and you’d hear a lot of stories about kids suffering career-ending injuries before they got to make it to the big time.