Dwight Stewart, former star forward with the University of Arkansas, said it best. “They recruited me to come play basketball,” he said. “They didn’t recruit me to go to school.” As the fever builds in the final days before the apex of the NCAA’s March Madness, once again the question hangs over the court: are they athletes or students?
The din raised in the cheers for college sports invariably drowns out questions from the academic side. When the coach gets a $15,000 dollar clothing allowance, how much attention will the anthropology prof ever get?
Some insist that the athletic scholarships provide a window in for people who’d otherwise never see the inside of such a school. The problem is they still don’t see the inside of the classroom.
Guests:
John DiBiaggio, original member of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
Linda Bensel-Meyers, Director of the Drake Groups for College Athletic Reform
Charlie Pierce, writer for Esquire Magazine
and Kenneth Shropshire, Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and sports-industry consultant.