Agreed, this stuff isn't going to stop. There are well-intentioned programs and conferences who will do things (or say so) that are in the players' interests. But if the schools are disadvantaged--the ones making the rules--things won't change.
One of the recent innovations has been the "four-year scholarship"--the scholly that can't be revoked. Sounds great until you study the consequences. I heard an outstanding and principled coach, Dan McDonnell, talk about it. Said it won't work for college baseball, a sport that is granted a TOTAL of 11.7 scholarships for the entire team. Check the size of the U of L baseball roster. I think there were more than 30 guys on it during Fall practices.
The schollies McDonnell gets to dole out are obviously a precious commodity. You make a recruiting mistake, you have to correct that mistake. That is, drop the kid's scholarship. Sounds ruthless, doesn't it? And that's McDonnell doing that stuff behind-the-scenes every year.
It's probably apparent, but the more I think about this Colburn situation, the angrier I get. Because at the root of the issue is ingratitude, something I'm not very tolerant of. A damned ungrateful, undersized kid that Petrino was willing to take a flier on is throwing it back in Petrino's and our faces. He was being rescued from the abyss of Presbyterian and other lightweight football programs, and this is the thanks we get.
And if it's not the kid's fault because he was letting other well-intentioned people like his football coach speak for him, that's the kid's fault too. Ungrateful AND stupid--anyone wanna still give this kid a scholly??...
This post was edited on 2/7 1:24 PM by zipp
