David Hale has a tremendous story on how college football programs like Clemson and Cal are leading the way in career training for their student-athletes.
I know many here see find Clemson football and Dabo in particular to be obnoxious and over-the-top sometimes (myself included), but I do think they represent the ACC well. I'm sure one could take a look at this article and criticize them for publicizing such a program in order to engender goodwill, but I still think it's a worthy cause.
I'd love for Virginia Tech to have such a program if it doesn't already exist in some form, since I do think that this is one of the areas that is true to the NCAA's core mission of helping set young athletes up for success.
Link: http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/19758226
Comments
This seems no different than what every college in the country offers: an education and access to internships. It just looks like Clemson and Cal have had to hire someone to specifically convince football players to take advantage. I am not sure if I think this is should be unnecessary with basic motivation or if it has become a needed service with the way talented players are talked into believing all of them will play in the NFL.
I think it's extremely important. I don' think it has much to do with players falsely believing they are NFL athletes, but more to do with the fact that athletes in revenue sports are encouraged (often times by coaches/administrators, but also by fans, peers, etc) to select easy majors, and do enough to just stay eligible, rather than challenge themselves with a difficult major that may have a better job opportunity. This is a major issue in college athletics. There is a huge conflict of interest when a coach is being paid to succeed on the field, and a kid spending too much time in class/studying can be detrimental to the teams' success.
Sources:
Time - Why Student Athletes Continue To Fail
SBNation - Athletes are getting degrees, but does that actually mean anything?
I think we both agree that the issue needing solved is the inflation of expectations that comes from the people around these kids. I guess it looks to me like Clemson and Cal are painting this rosy picture of all of the help they are providing while at the same time their own coaches and staff are partly responsible. It is analogous to the cigarette companies owning nicotine gum brands and moving the spotlight to the tobacco cessation products and hoping people overlook the cigarette ads.
It's the convincing part that is the toughest. During my time as a D1 bball coach (at a bottom of the barrel MEAC school), it's convincing the 15 guys that their dreams of the NBA draft aren't realistic, and in a few short years they will have a degree (hopefully) and will have to go into the workforce. Only 2-3 guys were fully aware and worked really hard off the court, others legitimately thought they would be one of the 60 names called on draft night...
There are plenty of opportunities afforded to college athletes that most students aren't lucky enough to have, on top of having major D1 coach(es) or AD vouch for them and placed as a reference on a resume. The opportunities are there for the taking, it's just a matter of whether the players have enough foresight to take advantage of them. This would be much more of a full time job for a FB team due to the sheer numbers, but the resources are there (mostly) from top to bottom.
This falls in with my assumption that adding a position to do convincing may not be addressing the root cause. It sounds like the players already have more advantages when it comes to a career outside of the sport and this position is another perk rather than necessity. At the same time I think your experiences illustrate my point further in that the star athlete has had their aspirations inflated throughout their formative years and convincing them otherwise shouldn't be a full time job, but looks like it is. It appears the root cause is the nurture more than the nature and by the time these kids get to the college level, it is too late, the wheels are already in motion.
True, and you definitely breach into the actual root cause... So many of these athletes being placed up on a pedestal since pee-wee ball and are told that going pro is an actual possibility, when in actuality the odds are stacked heavily against them. Granted, the kids who are at the marquee programs do have a better chance, but it was just comical to hear some of my guys truly believe they would be drafted. It took every ounce of fortitude and professionalism not to laugh in their face because it wasn't a realistic goal to achieve from their current location. I always enjoyed coming to workouts the day after the draft asking them all "what are you doing here? I thought you were getting drafted??". Not to be an ass, but to prove a point... Let's be an all-conference player first then once you do that, you can take the next step(s).
The primary cause is placing athletes on a pedestal and telling them (though, not in every situation) that athletics is more important than academics and you only need to do the bare minimum because you can throw or catch a ball. But that's on society...
I do agree with you that adding a position to essentially convince players to take real life seriously when football doesn't work out is just down right silly, but then again, it's just another added perk to sell and something else to showcase to a recruit to say that no matter what happens, our program is doing everything we can to prepare you for, as the NCAA so aptly puts it, "going pro in something other than sports".