While I do not like the idea of athletic scholarships (I agree with Wayne
that colleges and universities are academic institutions), I think that in
the current climite of college sports, I would rather have some mechanism
of athletic scholoarships. Why? Because then the tuition money that the
student athlete receives is obvious for all to see.
 
It has been my experience that colleges/universities that do not directly
offer athletic scholarships, somehow manage to give their star athletes
a very good finiancial aid package. I won't name colleges, but I don't
think even Ivie league schools are above this (some at least, not necessarily
all and not necessarily in respect to hockey).
 
Part of this problem exists because some schools offer athletic scholarships
while others don't. Some of the schools that don't offer athletic scholarships
but still want to field good teams (and collect the revenues of these sports)
will offer financial aid anyway. If no one can offer athletic scholarships,
this could reduce this problem, but I'm not convinced that it will eliminate
the problem (unless there is massive scholarship-policing).
 
So, as long as schools will circumvent the lack of athletic scholarships
with other financial aid packages, I would just as soon have athletic
scholarships since it keeps everything in plain sight. Call an apple an
apple and an orange an orange. Call financial aid which is given to
an althete obviously due to his/her athletic skill an athletic scholarship.
 
Derek Snyder
GE CR&D Schenectady, NY
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