Why should an aspiring pro athlete be de-facto required / expected to be scholastically proficient? It seems like the crux of the problem is that aspiring athletes in America (except the very tip of the top prospects) need to compete in college to hone their skill set... not that I am the first person to say this of course. I think the universities are at 90% fault- they are the ones who try and maintain the image of equal treatment. They are also the ones who coddle athletes and enable their academic dishonesty. What would happen if schools started offer athletic scholarships where all the "student" does is play sports, and they don't bullshit about it? wouldn't that be better?
In F1 the drivers are as competent as some of the engineers in STEM. I can bet Lance Armstrong knows a thing or two about air resistance, tension, torsion and fatigue of parts. And I have yet to see any competent bodybuilding that doesn't know what is going on in his body on a molecular level.
You need to know a lot of stuff to be top performer. The same way you need a rock hard body to be a top scholar - your brain just works better when your body is in better shape.
But the article is talking about basic literacy. You need that to be able just to integrate into society.
Not entirely sure that he operates at the theoretical top of his intellectual capacity.
He has definitely produced great work despite his condition, but for us average joes - I can definitely state that since I started to hit the gym and began to lose weight my thinking is much faster, and my brain endurance increased a lot.
If all they do is play sports, then you couldn't really call it a scholarship, could you. The athletes would play sports and in exchange they would get.... to play sports. And the college gets all kinds of money and publicity in exchange for ... allowing the "students" to play sports. Perhaps some of the more literate of the players might stop and think for a second about the situation, and then get a crazy idea like trying to form a union, or something equally preposterous. And then the colleges might have to share some of that game revenue with the people actually playing the game! What are you trying to do, freeze over hell?!
"Why should an aspiring pro athlete be de-facto required / expected to be scholastically proficient?"
A vast majority will not succeed in their venture and these are schools. Poor career paths aside, the rest of the world expects you to be able to read and comprehend the menu in the food court. This goes doubly so if the aspiring athlete is working the till, which they often are before and after their career path.
You are correct that the vast majority of collegiate athletes will not go on to play professionally. However most of them are well aware of this and actually can read and do take their academics more seriously. There are countless numbers of people who were athletes in college and who go on to success in professions other than sports.
The truly elite athletes who are very likely going to go on to play professionally also know this and may very well not have any intention of completing a degree.
I doubt those "between 8% and 10% of the school's football and basketball players" who "are reading below a third-grade level" are getting much education. At best, they are getting an empty degree.
