Council arrest highlights athlete issues

In some surprising news yesterday, Rod Council, the UL football starting cornerback, and one of the only consistently solid secondary performers for UL, was arrested in TN allegedly for robbing a gas station at gunpoint, for barely over $100.

UL Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe acted immediately to "permanently dismiss" Council from the team and the football program. Kudos to Kragthorpe for not being wishy-washy about a decision and acting promptly. It was a sound and correct decision.

However, this incident, for me, illustrates what might be the real problem in college athletics today. While athletes are given full scholarships for their educations, (and something every current and former student would LOVE to have, instead of the debt we incur while gaining our education), there still exists a big hole for these athletes that results in SOME of them ending up in serious trouble and even serious legal trouble.

That hole is a double-edged sword. The first part is that many of our athletes come from very economically depressed and poor neighborhoods that quite often are riddled with crime and even gang warfare and drug abuse. Many of our athletes see sports as their ONLY way out of this situation. And for a great number of them, it works. But this situation also shows the pitfalls of that system. While in school and on campus, these athletes can and do lead very productive lives and begin to find self-worth. But outside of that protective environment these same athletes, once back home, are subject to the exact same conditions that they seek to get out of. And the pressure by those that do not leave is still there on these athletes to be accepted or be "cast out" and threatened.

In the case of Rod Council, for example, the first question that comes up for me is this: Why was this athlete roaming around Asheville N.C. in the middle of a school week, in the middle of an academic semester?

Why was he not in class? Or at the very least, on campus either studying or in the football complex training?

According to reports, not only was Council not at the school on the day the alleged crime took place, but also the next DAY when he was arrested he also was not even in the city of Louisville.

Where was the oversight and mentors that are supposed to be in place?

And what possessed Council, who is getting a free ride for his education to allegedly rob a gas station for little more than $100? He is charged with a felony that could ruin his life all for such a pitiful sum of money? Why? If this is true, what led him to this action, and where were the people who his parents entrusted him to, (i.e. the school administration and coaching staffs), when he reached this critical life-changing decision?

Afterall, the schools themselves have a very real financial vested interest in seeing that the athletes in their charge are having their needs met and are caring for these athletes in way that
protects these kids from themselves.

Now, understand, I am NOT defending Rod Council, or even questioning the decision by HC Kragthorpe to permanently dismiss Council from the UL program. As I stated above, I 100% agree with Kragthorpe's decision. My question(s) are more broad based and general as it pertains to college athletes.

The system, because of past greed to "win at all costs", (by schools like Oklahoma, Notre Dame and most emphatically Southern Methodist University, where unfair practices would stockpile talent and falsify academic records), where many of these athletes could stay on campus and be under the care and supervision of their coaches and mentors, as well as having academic and assistant and/or graduate assistant help, are now, by NCAA rule left to their own devices to survive except the time period in which the sport is actively playing. And that includes very strict rules on any scholarship athlete finding a paying job, in the time period when the sport is not actively playing. Are we truly being 'fair' to these athletes? Are the schools that depend so much on the revenue that these athletes bring in for their performance truly acting in the best interest of the STUDENT?

I know that many ordinary students have the attitude that athletes "get all the breaks". In many cases that is true. But I would also challenge those same student opinions to tell me how much more impact the school's revenue is beyond that student's tuition costs? With athletes, the price of a scholarship is minuscule compared to the revenue that the school brings in comparatively.

And yes, I do realize that there are many ordinary non-athlete students who also come from very underprivileged environments. But at the same time, unlike student-athletes, ordinary students are not constrained by NCAA rules with regard to finding any kind of job they want, or limited to financial help by any number of sources, (i.e. family, friends, even social services), to help them with their scholastic pursuit.

I just have to wonder if the real issue here is the NCAA rules system which so strictly impairs our schools to act in the best interest of our student-athletes.