
Going to a large football school, this topic of student athletes receiving special treatment interested me because good football players here are treated like celebrities. Players like Jadeveon Clowney and Pharaoh Cooper receive major attention from the university, which is understandable considering how much income they bring to the school. Don't get me wrong, I love college football, but as a hard working student, it can be frustrating to watch student athletes all around the country fly through school because of their special abilities outside the classroom. My degree is just as important as theirs. Future college athletes are even given special treatment before they are even in college yet. For example, I grew up my whole life wanting to go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Grade wise, I did not have the qualifications to attend. However, a recruited basketball player may have a lower grade point average and SAT score than me and have gotten into the school for his athletic abilities. Growing up in North Carolina, my parents and many of my friends attended UNC at Chapel Hill. The recent scandal with the school's athletes receiving special treatment was largely talked about and alumni who donate money to the school and support their basketball and football programs were shocked and embarrassed. 

The special treatment begins even before the students even become students in college. Many of these athletes fall under the category of 'special admins.' These are people (most of the time college athletes) that wouldn't get into the school based on their normal credentials but get in once presented in front of a committee because they have something special to offer the school. A pretty reasonable process. Most schools, even prestigious ones, admit to only admitting students and holding their college athletes by NCAA standards and not the school standards. However, they are flexible and no school has released a grade under which a student may not be admitted at all. "Flexibility appears to be the only consistency." Coaches are pressured to get these good players, regardless of their credentials because they know that if they do not win games they will be fired. However, they are never told, if their players do not graduate they will get fired. This source is creditable because it was written by Mark Alesia who is a credible sports business reporter. This course is relevant because it discusses how coaches and people of admissions at universities bend the rules for athletes to get them into the school that wants them for their athletic abilities. 

The article, "North Carolina Academic Scandal Will End Quietly, Just like Everyone Wanted." is about the scandal of the UNC Chapel Hill Men's basket ball team (as we'll as other athletes) committing academic fraud. This was by taking courses that required little to no work to receive good grades. This article talked about how in the end of the day, no one cared and the article goes into deal about why no one cared. It shows how the student athletes were treated differently than the rest of the students at UNC Chapel Hill. The focus is presented partially because the article isn't necessarily about the even of the UNC basket ball team scandal itself but more why the scandal didn't blow up as much as it did. This article by Mike Rutherford was a reflection of the scandal. It shows that the university knows about the special treatments given, but has no intentions on stopping it.  The author's name is Mike Rutherford and is a journalist for SB Nation which is an online sports media brand. This online network is very popular and is well respected by sports fans and sport communities. SB Nation, according to Vox Media, recruits highly qualified journalists to cover the stories featured. The effect of genre has both an informative and argumentative effect on this article. It is informing the reader why the UNC Chapel Hill scandal didn't blow up as big as it should have, but the author still believes that it was wrong that it didn't.  

The second article I used is called "Education: Bending the Rules for Student Athletes." The article is an article about a situation that happened with the University of Georgia where instructors raised student athletes grades in order for the to be eligible to play. There was a law suit because one of the professors claimed she was dismissed because she did not display favoritism like the other professors did. This argument is informative. It shows situations at University of Georgia where teachers have given unfair special treatment to student athletes. It is informing the reader, who is the general public, about how teachers and others are bending the rules and giving the student athletes "special help." Help that not every student is given. The author for this article is William E. Schmidt who is a journalist for the New York Times. This article is about the Chapel Hill Athletic scandal involving athletes classwork being held to lower standards than other students. Ten percent of student athletes at chapel hill were found to read at only a third grade level. Roy Williams the Chapel Hill coach disputed the claims that athletes were held to lower standards even though he was aware of the biased grading of student athletes. Savage also proposes a solution to the problem in this article by proving special tutoring programs for the student athletes.

For many, college sports are a large part of the experience of going to college. Students and alumni enjoy the sense of pride that comes with going and cheering on their school at athletic events. Athletic programs bring a major source of revenue. However, student pride is higher and the l revenues brought in for the school are larger the better the school is at sports.  Football and basketball have been where there are the most issues with students. Athletic recruitment is very popular and often a player with lower academic qualifications will be admitted into the university only because he is being recruited for a sport. So it is no surprise that when after the classes and school work begin, these athletics struggle to make good enough grades to even qualify to play the sport that they were recruited for. Student athletes receiving special treatment has always been an ongoing known thing. The universities still know it's happening yet they have no interest in stopping it. 

The special treatment that the athletes receive doesn't end in the class room or financially. In a video posted on ESPN's website called "Lawyers, Status, Public Backlash Aid College Athletes Accused of Crimes," it shows examples of mens basketball and football students in schools that represent the ten major conferences. This video talks about all the players that have gotten into legal trouble during their time as a student athlete, and how many of them were let off easy. The video uses Chris Rainy, who was the running back for the University of Florida from 2007-2011, as an example of a student who has gotten special legal treatment during his time as a player. He was accused of 5 crimes during his time as a Gator and was only charged once. Situations like this one prove that college players can get away with so much and officials will still fight for the students to play, even when they know that what the student did was bad. They need the players and will stop at no cost to make sure that the athletes are able to play. Rainy even admits that maybe if he had been punished the way he deserved to be punished, situations in the future may have been able to be avoided. These players are bing treated way differently than a normal student would've been treated. Not being disciplined with consequence is how these players are often being treated. 

Basketball and Football players at division one schools are working very hard for their school and for their team. They work long hours in the morning and in the evening everyday to improve their game so they school can be represented in positive way. Many people believe that because of the hard work they put in, they deserve the special treatment that they are receiving. They are technically unpaid but the school justifies their "payment" through scholarships and their education is their payment, which is an excellent and fair trade, in theory. However, with the long hours of pratice, away games, and tournaments, these students are basically forced to put their education on the back burner and to make sports their priority. When this happens, professors excuse absences, late work, and won't even grade as harshly because they know that the athletes are busy working hard. They are easily passing classes that they missed, where they turned in late work, and where they turned in half-ass assignments. They are not receiving the same treatment as other students, but they are also not gaining the same education that the regular students are receiving either. The student athletes are receiving a water downed version education that the rest of the students receive. People argue that this is really okay because most college athletes are working towards going pro anyways, this is wrong. There is a statistic that in division one sports, only 2% of players on college sports teams make into the professional leagues. So 98% of athletes are playing sports to receive an education so they can do something with their life and their degree after school is over.  However, is the athletes "payment" for playing sports really is their eduction, it is unfair because they are receiving a lower quality education  than they would have received if they didn't play sports in college. 

Students deserve some kind of special treatment.  But do they deserve the special treatment that they are receiving? These college athletes bring in millions of dollars to schools each year. The better the team does, the more money for the school. These students deserve incentives for their hard work. These young students, in their late teens and early 20s are expected to receive nothing but a pat on the back. A small percentage of students do so much for an entire university. School is not as necessary for the division one athletes that are focused on moving on to professional ledges School is not a priority for all of them anyways. Students deserve the special treatment --  but to what extent? College players work hard for themselves and for the rest of the school and deserve the special treatment. But when does this treatment stop being ethical? Coaches and schools prioritize the good of the sports team and the money it brings in over ethical issues. Avoiding the problems encourage a type of behavior that should not be tolerated at universities or leagues. Ignoring the issues instead of confronting them and making schools suffer the consequences can have a negative effect. Maybe if players are punished the first time, they would be less likely to do it again.  School and sports are two different things; when a student works hard on the field, their hard works will pay off on the field. And when a student works hard in the classroom, their work will be rewarded in the classroom. It is unfair and frankly doesn't make sense that the two should coincide.

