At 12:04 PM 12/6/95 -0700, you wrote:
 
>Hockey can be a way that someone can simply be accepted into a college that
>they might not get into otherwise, scholarship or not. This is one of the
>modern-day purposes of college sports. Even if the player rides the pine,
>or doesn't dress for four years, they're still attending college.
 
I think you may have disturbed a hornet's nest here.  For the majority of
college hockey programs, perhaps.  But what about Div. I football or
basketball (big money sports)?  Most college administrators would take a
different line; sports either "brings in much needed funds" or "raises
institution's profile in community."  After all, how many big football
schools offer *bullshit* (my opinion, all flames to me) majors like sports
studies or something just to keep athletes eligible?
 
>It just disgusts me that more and more colleges are now looking for "hockey
>players than can learn to be students," rather than "students who can play
>hockey."
 
I agree wholeheartedly.  This starts first and foremost with coaches and
extends through the AD to the chancellor or president of the institution.
Student athletes are called that for a reason, they are students first.
College sports need more role models like Grambling's Coach Robinson who
personally wakes his players in the morning and sees they go to class.  Or
all the hockey programs who reschedule games around exams and study time.
Again, hockey does a much, much better job than most other spectator sports.
But for my part, I'd like to see even more.  Instead of arguing over who
beat whom for poll rankings, let's follow the real poll:  which program
graduates more athletes.
 
As for Canadians, I've offered my views on the subject here extensively in
the past.  For Pete's sake, we're more a province than a state, anyway.
 
Sorry for the raw nerve...  When your alma mater is 2-9-1, academics offer a
pleasant diversion.
 
Mark Sonnier
UAF Class of 1990
 
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