http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/sports/13cnd-auburn.html?hp&ex=1152849600&en=c25d9c5a7d313bfc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Who cares? Major football conferences should be exempted from petty rules like "class attendance" or "reading" or "counting." But yea, OK, maybe 4 or 10 sanctions would be acceptable for such deplorable behavior by the 'barners. Give some to 'Bama too -- guilt by association.
It may be worth noting that the guy who wrote this article is the same one that penned the article on the diploma mills...which ended up with the NCAA starting their investigation 3 months later...Nov. 2005 if memory serves me correctly. This C/P is from one of their web writers/moderators. How embarrassing this is for Alabama Posted By: Mrkgreen Moderator Posted At: 7/13/06 8:19:40 pm Reply to have their "journalists" outted as little squealy chauvenists for BAMA REDNECK football, goading the New York Times into a story accusing a LEFT-leaning sociologist of being easy on black student athletes, treating them as he did his white, non-athlete students. As Clarence Thomas put it, an attempt at "high-tech lynching." Gee, let's see, the Times turns on the Jews in favor of the Palestinians. And now they hit and run on a liberal "field of study" as it seeks to give credit hours for its "discipline" to a black man in America. That's some great work for the voice of American Leftist propaganda. Really great work guys. Guess your poor training is catching up with you. Thank the NEA. How
I guess at Auburn "It ain't cool to go to school" . If they broke the rules they should be punished if not lay off of them.
Well, we'll see what becomes of this, but there is no joy in Mudville right now. Athletes seek out easy professors everywhere. It has happened here before and could happen again. But this instance at Auburn does appear to be a more systematic abuse of the rules than usual. The Barners ripped us pretty hard a few years ago when a couple of football players got unauthorized free tutors and an instructor complained that she was presuured to change a players grade so he could stay eligible for the Peach Bowl. So they are going to have to take their lumps on this one. I wish I had a nickle for every high-five in Tuscaloosa this morning.
while i'm certain that there are some who will be delighted at any negative publicity directed at Auburn, i'd recommend you read the articles carefully and become familiar with the writer's agenda on this issue, particularly those of you which may be interested in pursuing a "distace-learning" or "directed reading" program. If this hack-job article has any merit to it at all, then there will be many more programs that will come under heavy fire, and it won't be limited to just the SEC schools or to football athletes. Contrary to the slant portrayed by the article, directed reading programs are common among student-athletes of most NCAA member institutions, including LSU. The highest percentage groups using directed reading progams are usually post-graduate, remote-learning programs used by executive-MBA students and Co-Op program students, with student-athletes falling well below those groups as a percentage. It should also be noted that the student-athlete's grades (not limited to football) are below the average grades awarded to other students attending the programs - right in line with the general student population scores. No funny business going on with grades. Directed reading programs basically cram an entire semester's worth of material into a 9 or 10 week program. Having taken these courses myself, I can assure you they require a lot of discipline - they are difficult. But it allows me to accomplish my credits during the brief intervals that my business schedule sometimes allows. That's also why student-athletes like these courses. Why should this concern LSU fans? Because this could very easily be your school next. And I can assure each of you that the higher-profile your program is, the more likely you'll be investigated for the same thing that AU is being smeared with. i won't go into the numerous WSJ links to the University of Alabama because IMO they are somewhat irrelevant. If AU is doing something wrong, then it should be brought to light. But we are all aware that the media doesn't always care about where they get their information from, only that it sells newspapers. (e.g. the many articles unfairly smearing LSU fan behavior) JMO, but I believe the following quotes say a lot about the "agenda" behind the article. The fact that he took his "allegations" to the NYT rather than to the University provost should speak volumes about his sgaenda..... Slam Auburn if you must, but keep an eye in the rearview mirror .....
Things to note: 1. Thamel tried a similar attempt last year in saying Auburn players were paid... Obviously, it was false. He also was the one who wrote the article on Auburn's basketball program a year or 2 ago. This guy is just a plain ole tool. 2. ESPN & Primetime did the same exact thing on the same exact type of learning program with Duke. Again, nothing came out of it. 3. The New York Times owns T-town news. Earlier in the week, it was leaked out that a writer for the T-town news was pushing this lame story on Tiderinsider before it broke under a different alias. 4. Thamel was obviously biased as only 25% of the people who took these classes were athletes. 5. By the way Thamel, ATHLETES do not equal Football players. 6. 18 footballers out of 272 students assigned... 6% of football players were taking these classes. 7. Why ignore the other 94% of students who also did the same thing?? Ya... no agenda here.....bs
