Athelets still getting the short end of the stick and trips
Student athletes go to class, they practice endless hours, they have no time to work (earn money), they make millions of dollars for their university, and in the case of McElrathbey (who is the legal guardian and care taker of his eleven year old brother), is unable to except any financial assistance to help with the care of his younger brother. The NCAA has to throw out their cookie cutter mentality and realize that not every circumstance is simply by the book. http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/09/ncaa_redux.html
Want to go on a summer tour through a university? Then understand the following options: 1. Don’t play college athletics, 2. wait until your sophomore year and hope your coach wants to take you overseas without the incoming freshman, 3. Don’t bring in any freshman for a year, or 4. go on a Labor Day tour that leaves on a Friday and plays that afternoon, eat, go back to hotel, sleep, get up and play again, eat, go back to hotel, sleep, get up and maybe get some free time (hope for good weather), sleep, then get up and leave for home. Foreign summer tours were a great experience for college athletes in the past and hopefully they will once again be a great educational opportunity in the near future. The short time a player has to travel during the Labor Day weekend is primarily a reason to get a jump on practicing and once again the athlete receives more pain than gain. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2575778
