rice1817
Newbie
I am new to this forum, and if it is OK would like to share my thoughts on the caste system, and why it may work out better for the white kids in the long run.
I am a football coach, and have been around the game for a long time. One thing that coaches have in common is that they want to win. I really believe that if a coach thought he could win by stocking his team with 5 foot tall Chinese players, then the rosters would be full of guys named Ming and Woo. So I am not sure that it is a concerted effort by the major colleges to lock out the white player. I think it has more to do with a reluctance to waste a scholarship on a kid who may actually put more emphasis on his studies than a black athlete will, maybe even to the point of quitting the team. I believe that many Acadademic All Americans started their careers as walkons for this very reason.
A lot of people seem to think that if a white player does not get the D1 scholarship, then he is relegated to obscurity at the lower levels of college football, and that a great future has been forfeit.
In my view, things will generally work out much better for these young men than it would have had they gone to a "big time" program.
The lower level schools run programs that allow a player to actually get a meaningful, marketable education as opposed to taking the "jock" courses so in evidence among D1 programs for their athletes. I knew a very talented HS player whose dream it was to play for the Texas A&M Aggies. All went very well on his recruiting visit, until the time came to sit down with the coach, I believe Emory Bellard at the time. He asked my friend "what would you like to study?" "Civil Engineering" was the reply. Bellard said "pick one from this list" and my friend saw things like "parks and recreation" and other such time wasters. "Why can't I study engineering?" "Because our time demands on our players will not permit it" was the answer.
My friend wound up at Carnegie Mellon University, where he had an outstanding playing career and got a 4 year degree in Civil Engineering (in 4 years I might add). He is now a productive member of society, building bridges and infrastructure as a project manager for a major engineering firm. His contributions tomankind are much greater than anyone whose main talent is their ability to catch passes on Sunday afternoon.
The graduation rate at the small colleges is as great as the graduation rate at D1 schools, especially among black athletes, is poor. When you hear a D1 coach complain about "losses to graduation", what he really means is losses due to players using up their eligibility. The athletes take just enough of a course load to stay eligible, and generally major in something less than marketable. Many quit school altogether once their eligibility has expired.
There are roughly 1600 pro-football positions, with maybe a 25% annual turnover rate. The 117 D1 schools (make that 114- gotta discount the Academies whose players probably have no pro aspirations) "graduate" maybe 2700 seniors. Add in the top D1AA and D2 players, and the underclassmen who declare for the draft, and you get about 3000 "applicants" for the 400 pro openings. The vast majority of those eligible will have to find something else to do to earn a living, to get on with their life's work as Chuck Noll used to say. they will soon find out that the fact that they played at Alabam or Texas does not cut a lot of mustard in the private sector job market, and that nobody is going to hand them anything anymore, unless it is at gunpoint. (Ask Maurice Clarett!) The ones who chose to go the D1 route and take the slider classes for the remote shot at pro football are not doing themselves a favor in the long run.
In general, black kids tend to equate their value with their athletic prowess. The best B-baller, the fastest runner, etc is looked up to and respected by their peers. The ones who are serious about their studies are "playing the white man's game". This attitude plays right into the hands of the D1 coach, whose job depends on fielding a winning team.
There are of course exceptions. Some D1 schools do stress academics: Stanford, Rice, Notre Dame. Jim Plunkett is an electrical engineer, Allan Pinkett a civil engineer. It can be done, but only by highly motivated, highly disciplined individuals, and those types tend to gravitate toward the Academies.
So. as part of a viscious cycle, the white kids who want to make something of their lives wind up being left out of the recruiting cycle by the D1 college coaches. As the white D1 population shrinks, so does the pool of white talent available to the pros.
To summarize, don't feel too bad about the local white kid who winds up at Mt. Union or Delaware: chances are he will be doing quite well for himself in 10 years, certainly better than the guys who only went D1 for the shot at the pros and took useless classes just to maintain their eligibility.
I am a football coach, and have been around the game for a long time. One thing that coaches have in common is that they want to win. I really believe that if a coach thought he could win by stocking his team with 5 foot tall Chinese players, then the rosters would be full of guys named Ming and Woo. So I am not sure that it is a concerted effort by the major colleges to lock out the white player. I think it has more to do with a reluctance to waste a scholarship on a kid who may actually put more emphasis on his studies than a black athlete will, maybe even to the point of quitting the team. I believe that many Acadademic All Americans started their careers as walkons for this very reason.
A lot of people seem to think that if a white player does not get the D1 scholarship, then he is relegated to obscurity at the lower levels of college football, and that a great future has been forfeit.
In my view, things will generally work out much better for these young men than it would have had they gone to a "big time" program.
The lower level schools run programs that allow a player to actually get a meaningful, marketable education as opposed to taking the "jock" courses so in evidence among D1 programs for their athletes. I knew a very talented HS player whose dream it was to play for the Texas A&M Aggies. All went very well on his recruiting visit, until the time came to sit down with the coach, I believe Emory Bellard at the time. He asked my friend "what would you like to study?" "Civil Engineering" was the reply. Bellard said "pick one from this list" and my friend saw things like "parks and recreation" and other such time wasters. "Why can't I study engineering?" "Because our time demands on our players will not permit it" was the answer.
My friend wound up at Carnegie Mellon University, where he had an outstanding playing career and got a 4 year degree in Civil Engineering (in 4 years I might add). He is now a productive member of society, building bridges and infrastructure as a project manager for a major engineering firm. His contributions tomankind are much greater than anyone whose main talent is their ability to catch passes on Sunday afternoon.
The graduation rate at the small colleges is as great as the graduation rate at D1 schools, especially among black athletes, is poor. When you hear a D1 coach complain about "losses to graduation", what he really means is losses due to players using up their eligibility. The athletes take just enough of a course load to stay eligible, and generally major in something less than marketable. Many quit school altogether once their eligibility has expired.
There are roughly 1600 pro-football positions, with maybe a 25% annual turnover rate. The 117 D1 schools (make that 114- gotta discount the Academies whose players probably have no pro aspirations) "graduate" maybe 2700 seniors. Add in the top D1AA and D2 players, and the underclassmen who declare for the draft, and you get about 3000 "applicants" for the 400 pro openings. The vast majority of those eligible will have to find something else to do to earn a living, to get on with their life's work as Chuck Noll used to say. they will soon find out that the fact that they played at Alabam or Texas does not cut a lot of mustard in the private sector job market, and that nobody is going to hand them anything anymore, unless it is at gunpoint. (Ask Maurice Clarett!) The ones who chose to go the D1 route and take the slider classes for the remote shot at pro football are not doing themselves a favor in the long run.
In general, black kids tend to equate their value with their athletic prowess. The best B-baller, the fastest runner, etc is looked up to and respected by their peers. The ones who are serious about their studies are "playing the white man's game". This attitude plays right into the hands of the D1 coach, whose job depends on fielding a winning team.
There are of course exceptions. Some D1 schools do stress academics: Stanford, Rice, Notre Dame. Jim Plunkett is an electrical engineer, Allan Pinkett a civil engineer. It can be done, but only by highly motivated, highly disciplined individuals, and those types tend to gravitate toward the Academies.
So. as part of a viscious cycle, the white kids who want to make something of their lives wind up being left out of the recruiting cycle by the D1 college coaches. As the white D1 population shrinks, so does the pool of white talent available to the pros.
To summarize, don't feel too bad about the local white kid who winds up at Mt. Union or Delaware: chances are he will be doing quite well for himself in 10 years, certainly better than the guys who only went D1 for the shot at the pros and took useless classes just to maintain their eligibility.
