“ Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling for the elimination of college athletic scholarships, saying the move is necessary to 'de-professionalize' college athletes.” - US News

According to Ralphy, scholarships should be replaced with need-based financial aid, which I personally think is a great idea. I mean, there are more and more college athletes becoming stuck up with the thought that they are already “stars”. In reality, they are still JUST college kids. They shouldn’t think more of themselves because they are playing a college sport, and they should be thankful!  It’s a once in a life-time opportunity to get to play college ball and it doesn’t need to be taken advantage of, which is what most athletes playing prime-time college sports do, such as basketball and football.

Nader said that colleges should either integrate athletics into the educational mission by eliminating college scholarships, or, “openly acknowledge the professionalism in big-time college sports, remove the tax-exempt status currently given to athletic departments, and make universities operate them as unrelated businesses.” And I couldn’t agree more!

Sheesh, they sure are making too big of a deal about college student-athletes!  Nader wants to take away scholarships for them but Walter Byers, has called for paying college athletes. That’s just adding fuel to the flame!  If universities want to talk about what’s possible/better for the university they should do it in private and when they are closer to an agreement THEN release the information to the public for criticism.

NCAA Vice President Bob Williams released his statement:

“Mr. Nader’s proposal is off-base on so many fronts it is hard to know where to start.  The 145,000 student-athletes who receive athletics related financial aid each year are in fact students first — as evidenced by the fact that in almost every demographic they graduate at higher percentages than their counterparts in the general student body. Moreover, less than two percent of them will ever play professional sports. The assertion that student-athletes who receive athletics aid are professionals defies logic — they are students, just like any other student on campus who receives a merit-based scholarship.”

This is what I was talking about. There’s just going to be more and more drama because of what these guys have said.  My advice?  Keep it to yourselves until you have come to more of an “agreement” together.

Back to the kids being greedy…

Take Cam Newton for example, so many scandals surrounding him. In my opinion, he’s so overrated and doesn’t deserve all the attention he’s getting.

I know I’m still I’m high school, but next year when I’m finishing up choosing a college to attend I’m going to be thankful for all the scholarship offers I get. To me, it’s not about getting attention, it’s about getting the opportunity to continue playing the game I love! I’m not going to base my decision on how popular the school is or it’s program.  It’s all about their academics and the morals of the team. I just want to continue my education… and play lacrosse if I’m lucky enough.

So I guess it’s just a lacrosse player thing but all the other college students who are already famous for playing need to chill! Like I said; you’re lucky to get the opportunity to play in college and if you’re going to be ungrateful about it, just remember that there’s always going to be another athlete training to be the best. You need to remember why you started playing the game and why you put in all the hard work and dedication. There will always be someone who wants to be better than you, so don’t get cocky and show them that you’ll always strive to be the best at what you do.

Until you shoot 100% there will always be a need to practice and get better.