They ought to just quit pretending and let athletes skip college classes

[Russ Smith]

This lastest one has me just saying why even pretend some of these kids are students, just let college athletes choose if they want to be students or not?

Jordan Hamilton has qualified for Texas and enrolled in Summerschool, he'll be playing basketball for them next year. Why is this news? Hamilton was ruled ineligible by the California Interscholastic Federation last year it was his 5th year in HS, and they ruled even though he didn't play basketball his first year, his eligibilty had expired. He appealed, they denied, he appealed again they denied ruling his freshman year academic problems were not "unavoidable" therefore he was not due that year of sports back. So he sat out the year, considered Europe(not good enough) and then decided to see what he could do to get eligible.

Now the backstory, between 7th and 9th grade, per his dad, Jordan Hamilton received TWENTY TWO F's! If you figure 7 classes per semester, 6 semesters that's roughly failing half of his classes. How he got out of 7th grade is beyond me. His 9th grade year he was at Dorsey HS in LA, where he managed to be ineligible for basketball even though the first semester wasn't over when the season started(apparently his GPA was so bad they figured why let him play he'll be ineligible as soon as grades come out). His dad concedes he got an F in every single core class as a freshman and was forced to repeat the grade.

Sometime between then and his junior year of HS, an AAU coach suggested they look into what had been done with Michael Oher, get him declared learning disabled so he could take tests untimed and get special help in classes. ONe problem, the people at Dorsey refused to take the dads word for it that he was ADHD(attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Eventually tired of being rejected, they transferred him to Dominguez HS in Compton for his junior year, he was diagnosed as ADHD, and his grades started to improve.

Still he was barely able to graduate and took more than one attempt to pass the California exit exam from HS, and he was still ineligible for D1. Then came the other advantage of being ADHD, he got an extra month to get his core GPA up, so they started and continued doing the BYU online courses and voila, he finally qualifies for Texas.

The kicker, the reason the CIF ruled him ineligible officially was his situation wasn't unavoidable, unofficially the rumor is that the CIF talked to administrators at Dorsey who said Hamilton had been tested for LD ever year from 7th grade on and he was NOT LD, his grades were bad because he cut classes and didn't do his work. Allegedly they told the CIF investigating the case that in their opinion Hamilton's dad was "trying to game the system" and when they refused to cooperate, he just went to a new school and found someone willing to diagnose him as LD.

Now I get why they did this, Hamilton's not good enough to play one year in Europe and go to the NBA, if he has any hope of making the NBA he's going to have to play in college and probably for 2-3 years. So he absolutely has to get to college, Juco is a non option for him he's simply not going to be motivated enough or get the exposure he wants, so he HAD to qualify. I guess learning from what happened to Brandon Jennings he decided the best way is jack your GPA up with BYU online instead of cheat on the SAT.

2 weeks ago there were reports from Texas that Hamilton wasn't expected to qualify and was not being allowed to enroll. Everyone assumed the Clearinghouse and or Texas admissions had come to the same conclusion the CIF did, he wasn't really LD, so they discounted his work, so it was a big surprise that he qualified.

This isn't new, years ago UCLA lost Schea Cotton when the NCAA ruled he wasn't really LD and shouldn't have been allowed to take the SAT untimed. He wound up a year in prepschool, and signed with NC State, and again the NCAA ruled his SAT score was still invalid. So he went off to Juco and wound up at Alabama for one year, never made the NBA and is now a personal trainer. That was over 10 years ago so this LD thing has been around awhile but apparently is becoming VERY common now since Michael Lewis' book exposed how Oher used it to qualify.

 

[Dback Jon]

A few cases like this is no reason to abandon standards.

Let him play community college ball.

 

[IAWarnerFan]

Agreed! This isn't that big of a deal. If he really isn't LD then his dad has done his son a disservice by doing this so his son might keep the very remote chance of one day playing in the NBA. If he really has a LD it's a shame he hasn't gotten the help he needed. School is still very important and corners should not be cut so athletes can keep playing. There's much greater things in life than sports.

 

[Southpaw]

They can play overseas. Waste of tuition.

 

[Russ Smith]

Agreed! This isn't that big of a deal. If he really isn't LD then his dad has done his son a disservice by doing this so his son might keep the very remote chance of one day playing in the NBA. If he really has a LD it's a shame he hasn't gotten the help he needed. School is still very important and corners should not be cut so athletes can keep playing. There's much greater things in life than sports.

I don't seriously mean let all the non students in without school I'm just exaggerating to make a point.

I'm sure there are kids who are legitimately LD and need the extra help, Cal had a RB years ago I'm blanking on the name, heavily recruited, he had dyslexia Russell something or other, great talent. He was legitimately LD, in fact a friend of mine's wife tutored him at Cal, she couldn't believe he hadn't been diagnosed dyslexic much earlier.

but with Hamilton all the stuff you hear is that he was tested repeatedly the family was just trying to game the system by getting him declared LD, they finally changed schools to one who was willing to find someone who'd just say yes he's LD.

I just think the current system is a farce, now we have Derrick Rose allegedly having a teammate take his SAT(a fellow teammate reportedly ratted him out), we have Jennings strongly suspected of cheating on an SAT, and this year we have Hamilton and I guarantee he's not the only one who's done this sort of thing.

The reality is the NBA rule is forcing kids who have no business in college to pretend to be college students. The NCAA has to make a stand here IMHO, they have to call BS when they see and stop accepting this BYU online and LD stuff when they know perfectly well what's going on. If some of these kids weren't just allowed to play in college and had to try the NBDL or some other path to the NBA maybe then the NBA would consider changing the rule?

I guess this bugs me because I would bet during the season we'll see and hear several stories about what a great story Hamilton was from bad student to qualifying and because it's not politically correct most people telling the story won't bother to report that he was tested every year and only after changing schools was he suddenly found to have ADHD. They're taking a hard line with Sidney and Stephenson on amateur status which I agree with but I don't see how they can justify some of the academic nonsense they've been tolerating.

 

[IAWarnerFan]

Agreed and this whole thing is a mess and there will always be such shortcuts. All that can be done is to enforce strict penalties on cheaters. Make them retake the class(es) before they can play ball. Probably won't happen, but it should.

 

[devilalum]

They ought to just quit pretending and let athletes skip college

Fixed it.

 

[overseascardfan]

They ought to just quit pretending and let athletes skip college

Fixed it.

All the college basketball analysts seem to agree with you. Its a well know fact that college basketball and football players skip the last semester of college to prepare for scouting combines and draft camps, more prominent in basketball as you only have to stay 1 year. Let guys like Hamilton declare for the draft and get a rude awakening when they don't get drafted, then all the screwing around in HS leads them nowhere. NCAA athletics are better off without them.

 

[ajcardfan]

I think instead of skipping classes, a major called "Professional Athletics" should be offered. That way, the people who see college as a stepping stone to the pros don't have to go through the charade of being a student athlete.

 

[overseascardfan]

I think instead of skipping classes, a major called "Professional Athletics" should be offered. That way, the people who see college as a stepping stone to the pros don't have to go through the charade of being a student athlete.

Why go through the trouble when they can major in PE or basket-weaving.