Bammer trying to cover up their cheating

[whiteplainstiger 0]

Former Bammer player Ahmad Childress gave this interview to the Birmingham News in the fall of 2006 about how the Bammers use the General Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences major to keep their retarded players eligible to play football. The writer for the Birmingham News checked the 2006 Bammer football media guide and determined that 26% of Bammer football players were majoring in General Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The 2007 Bammer football media guide does not list the majors for Bammer football players. Another classic case of Bammer trying to cover up their cheating.

The class was easy enough for Ahmad Childress, then a University of Alabama football player: Write about football.

For three credits one summer, Childress said, he and five teammates composed an entire football class that required only instructing a football camp for kids in Gulf Shores and writing a four-page essay.

"That was the whole class. I got an A," Childress said. "Yeah, it was a little weird, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do to be eligible."

In the world of big-time college athletics, eligibility can trump education. The pressure to win ball games and make money creates, for better and for worse, a special path for some athletes to remain academically eligible to play.

That path is lined with fancy academic centers for athletes and a support army of academic advisers and tutors.

It is marked also with easy classes to which some athletes gravitate.

At Alabama, the most popular football major is general studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Twenty-six percent of football players majored in general studies in HES compared with 2 percent of all Alabama students.

The clustering of athletes in certain majors isn't necessarily unethical or against a university's policy, and is common on most campuses.

"I don't know why anybody in the world would expect the students who arrive with lesser academic credentials not to end up in the easiest majors," said University of Alabama law Professor Gene Marsh, the school's former faculty athletics representative.

"But people who say it's OK to end up with athletes huddled in particular majors because of their time demands don't understand reality. There are many students working many hours a week in part-time jobs" and they do not cluster into easy majors, he said.

Linda Bensel-Meyers, a University of Denver professor who once alleged academic misconduct at the University of Tennessee, said soft majors and classes provide a grade cushion to maintain eligibility. But the greatest threats, she said, are grade changes and waiving of standard university policies, such as course prerequisites, to benefit athletes.

"It enables some athletes to appear to be enrolled in a college curriculum," Bensel-Meyers said. "In fact, they are merely being housed until their eligibility expires, often to graduate without an education."

Academic survival

Many athletes don't need a special path through college - they take challenging courses without the need for extra guidance. But at every school, pockets of athletes who struggle academically find ways to stay eligible.

Alabama cornerback Simeon Castille wishes he were still a communications major. He wants to become a broadcaster.

He's a general studies major in the College of Human Environmental Sciences now because "I screwed up, and this is getting me back on track to graduate."

Castille was academically ineligible for the Cotton Bowl last season. He became lazy, he said, and passed only three credits in the fall 2005 semester, leading to his ineligibility and a change in major.

General studies in HES is a popular place for key Alabama football players. It accounts for 40 percent of the majors for undergrad starters in 2006, as of Oct. 14, according to the team's media guide.

General studies combines two or more existing majors from the College of Human Environmental Sciences: apparel and textiles, athletic training, consumer sciences, early childhood education, food and nutrition, health studies, human development and family studies, interior design, and restaurant and hospitality management.

"It's a safe home for athletes to be eligible for football and other sports, too," said Childress, the former Alabama defensive tackle who was a general studies major. "You really don't do too much work. You're basically taking notes in class."

Childress said he was made aware of HES general studies by advisers in the athletics department.

After going on academic probation when his grade-point average fell to 1.7, Childress said he used easy general studies courses and electives to increase his mark to the 2.5 the university said he needed to play.

Childress, an arena football player who is 15 credits shy of graduating, said he regrets treating academics so lightly and blames himself. He wishes he had told advisers he was interested in human resources instead of easily accepting classes that would keep him playing football.

"Nobody never challenged me. I wish somebody had. But . ?. ?. at that time, you're a grown man. It's on you."

[WarTim 3,457]

Interesting. Let's wait for the uat "spin" on this one.

[kingfish 73]

Why am I not surprised? This one will never make the NYT, only AU gets their negative coverage.