Problems in College Football

news-record.com 

UNC football is hardly what it seems to be 

Letter 

Comments (8) 

Thursday, October 7, 2010 

(Updated 3:05 am) 

Counterpoint: 

By John Aderholdt 

The state motto of North Carolina is “To be, rather than to seem.” The 

UNC-Chapel Hill football scandal is saturated from all sides with 

“seeming” rather than “being.” 

First, UNC, other universities and the NCAA pretend that big-time college 

sports still have something to do with “amateur athletics.” 

The reality is that they have turned college sports into a multi-billion- 

dollar business that is for sale at every turn. We see coaches paid 

multimillion-dollar salaries, lavish facilities and every facet of the games dictated by television. 

Other than obsequious devotion to the NCAA’s own self-serving rules, there’s no longer any logical 

explanation as to why UNC star Marvin Austin is defined as “the bad guy” because he might have accepted 

a $500 plane ticket in a sport where the head coach of his team is being paid more than $2 million a year. 

“Student-athletes”? Very few of the 85 players on its football roster would be admitted to UNC as regular 

students, absent their football skills. They are concentrated in a few “soft” majors and while, to their credit, 

most graduate, their class work is usually a much-watered-down version of the education that most UNC 

students pursue. 

Regarding the tutor allegations, I don’t know any college graduates who seriously believe that UNC’s 

football players are unique in getting some extra help with their homework. They are just either happy or 

sorry the light is focused on Chapel Hill. 

Meanwhile, the News & Record and others have called on UNC to fire Coach Davis, not so much because 

of any evidence that he is complicit in this scandal, but simply to give the appearance that UNC has dealt 

with this problem and to salve the embarrassment to the university’s reputation and “integrity.” The News & 

Record is apparently resigned to the notion that UNC will simply hire another Butch Davis and continue its 

pursuit of a BCS football championship. 

If UNC and other universities want to get back to “being” rather than “seeming,” they need to either rein in 

some of the Fortune 500 salaries and commercialization that have permeated college athletics — or just go 

ahead and turn these teams into some form of minor league professional outfit sponsored by and located at 

the universities. 

The writer lives in Greensboro

On page 499 of the text, Coakley talks about how athletes are privileged over other students. The article above talks directly about how many athletes at North Carolina aren't just normal students. In this article, North Carolina is the school highlighted, but the same is true of athletes at many big time universities. In class, we discussed the abuses of collegiate athletics, many of which are highlighted in the article by Aderholt. Easy majors are one of those  abuses. Aderholt claims many of the athletes at North Carolina take easy majors just to get by. The astronomical  salary of the head coach is another issue in college sports. As we reviewed in class, many head football coaches  make more money than the president of the university. North Carolina is a prime example of a university putting pressure on teams to win. With that pressure to win, comes abuses. I play collegiate football at a Division II level and the abuses are not  near as prevalent, but I still see some occuring. I believe there needs to be a change before college sports and pro sports are indistinguishable.