Staff Writer
Former
NCAA football player Michael McAdoo is suing the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. He claims the University broke its promise to provide him “a
legitimate education” in exchange for playing football.
McAdoo
lost his NCAA eligibility in 2011 when he was accused of receiving too much
help from a tutor, who footnoted and created a bibliography for one of his
papers. He was also one of the first student-athletes found to be taking part
in “paper classes”, or classes for which the only requirement is to write a
single paper. McAdoo says that these classes, concentrated mainly in the
African-American Studies Department, do not constitute a legitimate education.
He also says he was guided toward a major in African-American studies by the
UNC football program.
Through
his lawsuit, McAdoo portrays his interest in UNC as purely academic. He claims
his recruiter’s promise of a quality college degree is what convinced him to
play for UNC in the first place. His actions in the past say otherwise. Is
McAdoo really sorry that he took an illegitimate course path, or is he just
sorry he got caught?
McAdoo
graduated from high school with a GPA of 2.9, which is well below the
requirement for academic admission. He was guided toward the easiest course path
possible because his supervisors knew he wouldn’t survive a semester working
toward any “legitimate” major.
Even
so, UNC did promise him a major of his choice. I am having a hard time
believing that African-American studies went against his will, however. If he
was actually committed to his academics to the extent that he has claimed, he
would not have cheated on his paper in the first place. Closer inspection into
the paper during his 2011 Durham Superior Court bid to re-win NCAA eligibility
found that he had not only received improper help on the paper, but also that
large parts of the paper were complete plagiarism.
The
fact that this lawsuit comes after McAdoo lost his NCAA eligibility is no
surprise. McAdoo seeks to make up for his suffering football career with money.
He, like many other college athletes, was at UNC to play football. Academics
were just something that got in the way.
This
brings up an important issue in college football, and that is how college
athletes are getting paid. We still cling to the tradition that the only way a
collegiate athlete is to be paid is with an education, but in recent times it
seems that this is no longer of value to some of these athletes. While the scandal
surrounding Michael McAdoo and UNC does expose some moral issues with both
parties, it more importantly provides evidence for an important argument in the
NCAA: Things are a lot easier when “student” and “athlete” are separated.
