College Sports Reform Proposal Drop the class attendance requirement for players on college owned minor league teams. Colleges do not have to have their academic reputation damaged by reports about how poorly players on their teams are doing in class . We lie about who and what they are and then get embarrassed when they turn out to be what we knew they were. When an NBA or a minor league player screws up he's seen as just a bad apple.
Nobody thinks less of the character of the coach or the owner.
But when a college player screws up it's seen as a sign of moral failing in the college community and a decline in academic standards, all because we foolishly felt compelled to hold them all up as student athlete role models. All that goes away under the new rule. He's just a ballplayer. He's not out there as some symbol of all we stand for as an institution. He doesn't claim to be our best and brightest.