The Big 10's Proposal To Make All Incoming Freshmen Football and Basketball Players Ineligible Is Downright Stupid

Diamondback - The Big Ten is hoping for support from its member institutions to begin a “national discussion” about ruling freshmen ineligible for football and men’s basketball, according to a document obtained by The Diamondback. “What I like about the concept of the proposal is it puts right up front the basic issue: Are we basically a quasi-professional activity or primarily an educational activity?” university President Wallace Loh said. “And if you support it, you are basically saying very clearly the No. 1 priority is the education of the students.” The document, which shows football and men’s basketball as the only sports with graduation rates less than 75 percent across the NCAA, states that a push for freshman ineligibility would benefit athletes academically.

Maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You can’t as a conference just decide no freshmen will play, unless of course you want all recruits that are worth anything to go to other schools.

It’s not hard: Kids go to college to play football, not to play school. If they are too dumb to realize they aren’t good enough for the pros, that’s their problem. A kid isn’t going to stay in school longer than he either has to or more importantly, wants to. And that’s the entire thing. Football and basketball players can leave school the second they are allowed to in order to pursue the pros. Some make it, some don’t. But they know that’s the risk going into it.

All the schools care about are money and statistics to wave over their heads. Look at our graduation rates! Look at our academics! They just refuse (I suppose understandably so) to just stop being pussies and admit they are money factories who milk a shit ton of money from these kids and want them around as long as possible.

It’s just posturing by the B1G. It’s so much a “look at me, I’m so much better than you, we love academics” bag of bullshit. They know it’ll never pass. Even bringing up the idea is simply ridiculous.