National Signing Day : College in our Culture

Today is the day. Over the last year, older well privileged have scouted and scoured the training of teenagers. They have analyzed every little strength and weakness to the point of knowing exactly what each person is capable of. They have gone through and spoke with them and discussed the possibilities of the future. Now they are asking that this teenagers volunteer themselves for a battle that takes place on television in front of a live audience for people's pleasure. It's not the Hunger Games but rather National Signing Day for collegiate football.

Now all of the above points were not to suggest the brutality of football but the media explosion around it. You will have hundreds of thousands of people watching ESPN cover where an 18 year old is deciding to go to college for four years and cursing the kids who decide to play a switch-up on their schools. This is the culture we live in, that raises athletic scholarships to a point where merely accepting one is a feat worth of national accolades. Some of these guys will get their 15 minutes of fame and not even qualify for school and will never step foot on campus.

So check this out, the NCAA awards roughly $1 billion in athletic scholarships in Division I and II sports (Division III doesn't offer athletic scholarships). These scholarships are split up into approximately 126,000 scholarships over 138,000 students (more on the shady math of the NCAA another day). So you have students being awarded an average of just under $8000 per scholarship and just over $7000 in an athletic scholarship per student, much of this due to the splitting of scholarships in sports not called football, basketball, or volleyball. 

Now on the other hand, there is about $3 billion in private scholarships and $15 in public/institutional scholarships and grants for academic and merit based students. That's 18 times what is offered athletically. Also, since there are $3 billion split up into $2000-3000 chunks, that's at least 1,000,000 private scholarships alone. However, there is little to no fanfare for the student who receive these scholarships.

We have generated a culture in which it is a source of pride to accept a restrictive scholarship that is a "full-ride" to an institution to go above and beyond just your studies for mere entertainment of others and disregards the achievements of those who receive much more money to do precisely what college is about, study, learn, and succeed in bettering yourself.

I am not saying that college football is bad, I love college athletics. What I am saying is that it's a dangerous time when a society places more stock in physical prowess than in mental capacity. If the next Steve Jobs runs a 4.3 40, we may never see the next Apple. The most incredible part of all of this, these athletic scholarships that are amazing full-ride's don't cover all of the cost and the restrictions they come with limit options for the student athlete. (more on this in the future NCAA shady math post).

Ultimately, it's probably time we look forward with our minds rather than our muscles. There are a lot of bright people in this nation and we need to let them know that they have options and reward those who are as strong in the classroom as Ray Lewis is on the gridiron. But seriously, when's the last time Rivals gave a darn about anyone's GPA.

Study Hard,

BGann

The Full Manti of Imaginary Friends

I think everyone has a point in time where they have an imaginary friend. I know I had that stage shortly when I was younger, and it seems everyone goes through it and has at least one imaginary friend (whether imaginary or inanimate is irrelevant, just an imaginary persona). Manti Te'o apparently never outgrew this phase.

For those that aren't caught up on this saga : Deadspin broke this story here.

So, you have this super star football player, who created a fake girlfriend and then killed her off in the middle of his super star senior season, or a super star football player that got duped.

Honestly, I don't know how you can believe Manti didn't create this girlfriend. He at least lied because he said he met her personally at a Stanford football game and vacationed with her to Hawai'i. We now know those to be false stories (mostly because she doesn't exist). It's a shame and though we don't know his reasonings now (I am sure we will learn in the days/weeks to follow), there are some things that we do know at this point.

• Manti Te'o has a dropping stock in all facets

This guy is already losing future endorsement deals and probably draft stock. Nobody wants this guy promoting your product (unless it doesn't exist) and he has instantly become a liability to whatever NFL team he ends up on.

• Say it, convince the media, and it shall be

We see this all of the time but it's scary. All Te'o did was convince one ESPN reporter that his girlfriend had died in a car accident, appealed to his emotions, told him to back off out of courtesy, and you had the emotional story of the year. Te'o tugged at the heart strings and if perception is reality, he had a girlfriend and she had died. Welcome to the power the media has, word is reality.

• ESPN is hating this.

For two reasons. First, they must hate mentioning Deadspin on television as they are nothing in resources to what ESPN has. ESPN was beat to the punch on this one but they also initially reported on Te'o's dead girlfriend. They have two blackeyes after today. They will survive because they are the sports television monopoly, but this hurts their emotional story credibility. Especially when the man who wrote that piece said he had no evidence other than the word of Te'o about her death.

• A microcosm of our "social" generation

There's another blog post coming down the pike on this in the near future that was already in the works. But essentially it boils down to the fact that the more we social network, the less social we actually are. It was completely believable that Te'o had a girlfriend that no one had ever seen. It also was completely verified that he could show her off in a way because of it. But certainly look for this post down the road.

• Lance Armstrong is LOVING this

For the first time in a few days, Lance Armstrong is not even being mentioned. The day before his confession airs, he is not the biggest liar in the sports world. Armstrong has been overshadowed because he isn't a relevant cyclist right now and Te'o is on top of the world. This hoax is an awful event because there were a lot of people fooled. The tale of the tape will ultimately reveal who duped whom.

So, I always try to end the blog with some kind of practical application or some takeaway. It's a little harder this time, but simply put - question everything. Don't let people tell you the story through their lens, but simply ask questions and always be awake. You may never know if you are being duped like Manti Te'o alleges he was or like the whole nation was by Manti Te'o as I alleged. 

Be Awake, Be Aware, Be Alert.

BGann