SDSU AD Sell Doesn't Sell NCAA on Realistic Support for Graduate Transfers
While I was enjoying the thrilling parliamentary wrangling of the South Dakota Democratic Partys state central committee meeting last month, a fellow Democrat turned to me and said with great excitement that the Jackrabbit women had won.
I stared back, probably more blankly than politeness would allow, and said, Oh, basketball?
Beyond acknowledging its impact on our economy, culture, and public policy, I pay almost no attention to young people playing sport (and the handful of lucky sport experts being paid more than any professor to direct that playing). But I find it worth noting that my alma maters athletics director, Justin Sell, tried to impose a little rationality on NCAA rules this week by advocating a rule change on graduate transfers.
I am surprised to learn that the NCAA allows athlete-students who have completed undergraduate degrees but are still eligible to play sports to transfer to new schools, enroll in graduate school, and play for new teams. Sell looked at the stats, found that only 20% of these graduate transfers in Division I mens football and basketball players actually complete graduate school, and said something isnt right. He thus proposed that teams accepting graduate transfers commit two years worth of scholarships to these students, to increase the chance that theyll actually finish graduate school rather than just come, play for a year, and then bail.
The NCAA rejected Sells proposal, but it sounds like a reasonable idea amidst an utterly unreasonable program. Lets be serious: very few people finish a masters degree in one year, even if they arent traveling the country playing sports full-time:
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2019/04/20/sdsu-ad-sell-doesnt-sell-ncaa-on-realistic-support-for-graduate-transfers/