Boy, if you think I’m cynical about the “let’s do it for the kids’ academics” angle being pitched in some quarters as a justification for reinstating freshman ineligibility, I don’t hold a candle to what’s expressed in this piece. I bring that up because there’s a quote in it worth highlighting:
Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke said he believes in the NCAA policy that prohibited freshmen participation before a 1972 reversal.
“I, for one ,as a Big Ten AD, am tired of being used as a minor league for professional sports,” Burke said. “What was right for the NCAA in the first 70 years of its history, maybe we ought to go back and say, ‘What’s changed?’”
Among Big Ten leaders, he said, a consensus exists to “get education back on the proper platform.”
For those of you who buy the sentiment, here’s a question. Prior to 1972, were student-athletes’ collegiate academic performances superior to what they are now?