Rules are Rules, or at Least They Should Be

GRAY



Thorough Thursday:
Hit the Books Bro



Derek Rose is going to be a great NBA player. As a Chicagoan, and as an avid basketball fan, I am simply amazed by his talent and composure at such a young age. I have been more than willing, on several occasions, to drop upwards of $50 to sit within arm’s length of the ceiling in the United Center, just to watch him play. And best of all, he is a player I can really get behind as he embodies so many attributes that I admire, ones that are so Chicago….stoicism, poise, self-reliance, and humility. He’s the rawness basically. So when I heard this morning that the University of Memphis had been charged with major violations for the 2007-2008 team that Rose played on, I hoped that he would not be implicated in any wrong doing as I worried that this image may be tarnished. After looking into the story further, my fears were confirmed when I read that the allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team. Sources confirmed that the player was indeed Derek Rose.

Though the full story is not out yet, it sounds to me as if Rose’s SAT numbers were altered or manipulated in some way in order to meet a minimum requirement for either admission, or some provision within the athletic department that allowed him to hoop. Many will argue that this is not a big deal because Rose is clearly a star in the NBA, who wouldn’t have attended college had it not been for the 1 year rule. He did what he had to do, served his mandatory year of college, and now he is fulfilling his destiny in the NBA, so who cares about his SAT score? Well you know what? I do. I think its garbage and I’ll tell you why.

I’m not what you would call a staunch conservative when it comes to rules, but I do know that when you break a rule too much, chaos ensues. And that’s what we have here. Of course Rose will be OK, and his Final Four run and career in the NBA serve as justification for any SAT snafu. But it sets a horrible president for Division 1 athletics and I think the athletes are the ones who miss out. The problem is, illegal perks, SAT/ACT score alterations, and athletic boosters in general don’t just exist at top schools with top recruits, they exist at the bottom schools as well. For every Derek Rose at powerhouse Memphis, there are plenty lesser ballers at schools like Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Wisconsin Milwaukee who receive similar treatment at their schools from coaches and boosters who want to win and keep their jobs just as bad as any big time coach in a big time program. And that has created a culture in which far too many college athletes, (including a great many who aren’t good enough to go pro) are encourages from day -one not to value their education and not to worry about the rules because push come to shove, we will bend or break them for you.

I do believe a special lifestyle should be assigned to college athletes, because they do something that most cannot do, and people pay money to see them do it. But Rose and every player who has had the rules bended to be admitted or maintain eligibility represent a slap in the face to the rest of us who do what we have to do, before we get to do what we want to do. Rose is a kid of sound intelligence; Simeon is a good public high school. If the rule is that you need a damn 1000 on your SAT to be admitted into Memphis, make him take the test until he gets 1000. My problem is that the very rules that are being exploited and broken are the ones the NCAA set in place to protect the interest of the student athlete. I can’t say that I blame Derek Rose, but I regret that he doesn’t experience failure of scoring too low on his SATs, and the redemption of working hard to improve the score. Sure, Rose doesn’t really need that lesson in his life,….but countless other athletes really do.