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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2107501, member: 289"] At our senior day all of our 5th year basketball players were pursuing a major in “Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation”. It led me to look up the majors of our basketball and football players from the current Media Guides for those sports. BASKETBALL The three guys in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation are DaJuan Coleman, Andrew White and John Gillon. Frank Howard, Tyler Roberson and Taurean Thompson are in the “David Falk College of Sports and Human Dynamics” Paschall Chukwu and Tyler Lydon are in “Rhetorical Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts” Tyus Battle is in the “School of Information Studies” I did the football team just as a stroke tally: 21 players are in “Communication and Rhetorical Studies”, which I assume is the same as what Chukwu and Lydon are studying. 15 are in the “David Falk College of Sports and Human Dynamics” 9 are in “Child and Family Studies” 6 are pursuing a Masters in “Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation” (They are Alvin Cornelius, Jason Emerich, Michael Lasker, Wayne Morgan, Amba Etta-Tawo and De’Jon Wilson, the first four are redshirt seniors and the last two grad transfers. I wonder: did they get their Masters or did they just ‘pursue’ it?) 6 are enrolled in the “College of Arts and Sciences” (So was I, back in the day.) 4 are enrolled in “Health and Exercise Science”, another in “Health and Physical Education”. I’m not sure what the difference is or if there is one. 3 are enrolled in “Sports Management” 2 guys are “Selected Studies in the School of Education” and one more was just “School of Education”, (Non-selected studies?) 2 guys had a dual major in Finance and marketing Management 2 guys each were studying Psychology, Sociology, Accounting and “Information Management and Technology”. 2 more were pursuing a Masters in “Television, Radio and Film“. Cam McPherson already had a degree in that and also in international relations and was pursuing a Master’s in Pan African Studies. 2 guys had no course of study listed. Per Syracse.com, they (Michael Moore and James Pierre), failed to qualify academically. 1 guy each was in: - African-American Studies - Broadcast and Digital Journalism - Economics - Finance - A dual major in Finance and Real Estate - Management - Biology - Public Health - Social Work - School of Information Studies - Engineering and Computer Science - Donnie Faster has a triple major in Finance, Management & Marketing Management I think these are all legitimate academic courses. I think the ones most popular with athletes have either a flexible schedule that would allow them to pursue success in their sport and/or (probably and) a tangential relationship to a career in sports as an athlete, coach, manager or broadcaster. The varied courses taken by 1-2 players show that a course of academic study leading to profession outside of sports is also possible. I don’t think it can be denied that the Falk College, the Rhetorical Studies and child and Family Studies, while legitimate, (compared to what happened at UNC), are being used to house athletes whose real ambitions are on the field or court. And that Masters in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation, while also legitimate, serves the same purpose for 5th year players and for attracting grad transfers. It’s not that Syracuse is doing this and nobody else is. I’m sure this is what all the big-time schools are doing, because that’s what they have to do to compete in the revenue sports and allow players to remain eligible as students. I’ve advocated for years that sports should be considered an academic course and the athletic departments should be considered Schools of Athletics or Academies of Sport. Players could spend their time not only learning to play their games but learning to teach them, studying sports management, nutrition, strength and conditioning, public speaking, investments, maybe something about taxes, etc. The above courses sound like the sort of things they would take in such a school, so maybe we’ve already got that without declaring it officially. [/QUOTE]

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