The Antidote for March Madness
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March 13, 2009
This spring CBS will once again pay $545 million dollars to the NCAA – which is technically a non-profit organization – to televise the men’s basketball tournament. This raises more questions than answers – but if you’re tired of both, you should skip the hoops for women’s gymnastics – the antidote for big time college athletics. Anything you can say about the nation’s worst-run college basketball and football programs, you can say the opposite about women’s gymnastics. Take Jackie Kramer. Three years ago, she had to make one of life’s biggest decisions: where to go to school. A National Honor Society member from West Hills, New York, Kramer could have accepted a gymnastics scholarship at Penn State or admission to Brown, where she would have been a star, or walk on at Michigan – where she would be the lowest athlete on the totem pole, and hee parents would have to pay a very real price: out-of-state tuition. She chose Michigan. Now a junior, Kramer still fights to get in the line up each week – but she says coming to Michigan was the best decision of her life, for more intangible reasons. Kramer and her teammates don’t knock themselves out for fame and fortune. Their only chance for that is the Olympic team, which has room for just six women every four years. If you made the mistake of being born in the wrong year, you're out of luck. And if you’re old enough for college, you’re already way too old for the Olympics. There is no future in this sport for college gymnasts, and they already know they’ll be going pro in something other than sports the day they arrive on campus. That helps explain why the team earned a B-plus average last season – which doesn’t even count Kramer’s 3.67, because the NCAA doesn’t include walk-ons. Virtually every year, every senior graduates, and 45 have been named Academic All-Americans. Yes, a college scholarship can be a strong incentive to work so hard, but it’s not the only one, and maybe not the most important. Gymnasts usually don’t compete for their high school teams. They join clubs instead, often far from home. Even their biggest meets attract only a few hundred fans, who cheer for individuals, not teams. But when Kramer and company joined Michigan’s team, for the first time in their careers they have actual fans -- about 3,000 for each home meet, ranking behind only football, men’s basketball and ice hockey. And they have teammates, living in the same town, going to the same classes, who win or lose together. As one of Kramer’s teammates told me, "All of us can say our best friends are on this team right now." Thanks to alumnus Don Shephard, who ponied up $3.5 million for a brand new gym, they enjoy world class facilities. It may be “a playground,” as Maureen Moody described it, but serious work gets done there -- witness the 16 Big Ten title banners hanging overhead. The place is missing only one thing: a national championship banner. The Wolverines have come close, twice finishing second by a fractions. It was under those Big Ten banners, that coach Bev Plocki gathered her team. When the athletes achieve their goals for the week, Plocki sometimes gives them a small prize, like a new pair of socks. But Kramer had already won her socks that week, "So I have nothing else to give her," Plocki explained, deadpan. "Nothing -- except a full scholarship." "Are you serious?" Kramer asked. Her teammates cheered, and hugged her. "I had no idea," Kramer said. "At first I was smiling -- and then I started crying. I couldn’t hold it back." When she called her parents that night, they couldn’t hold it back, either. The day’s events were witnessed by just a few close friends, far from the CBS cameras. But when you see what those cameras have done to college basketball, maybe that’s for the best.
Copyright © 2009, Michigan Radio
My peers constantly give me grief for being an idealist but I don't let that bother me. With that said, articles like this are why I log on every Friday morning and look forward to this blog's latest entry. Articles like this are just another reason why it's good to be a Michigan Wolverine.
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Chris,
There is so much bad news out there that I'm convinced it takes a little more work to find those stories that aren't entirely depressing.
Bad news tends to happen quickly, and dramatically -- whether it's a housefire or 9/11. Positive developments generally occur over a lot of time -- and are therefore usually ignored by the press.
After all, it took about a decade to put the Towers up, and only a couple hours to bring them down. Example within an example: Rent "Man On Wire," about a French high wire artist who actually spanned the Towers 35 years ago. Incredible.
Hope your Friday went well, Chris.
-JUB
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A beautiful story, with a beautiful ending!
The message about March Madness vs. ladies gymnastics comes across loud and clear. Well done, John U. Bacon!
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Thank you, Dr. Kornblue!
This one definitely flies below the radar -- the kind of story I like to write, when I can.
Now, back to the Madness!
-JUB
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What a great story...This is what college athletics should really be about instead of how much money can the BCS Bowls make for colleges.
They can say what they want, but if the Presidents and Chancellors of universities really wanted to make a difference the individual teams would earn scholarships based on the overall team's GPA.
What a unique concept,intertwining academics and athletics in a manner where the student's achievements in the classroom rewards them with the opportunity to earn a larger scholarship. (Is that what Florida State had in mind?)
Jim
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Jim,
You're right: this is how it's done. I've always believed college basketball and football will always be beset by systemic problems until they develop (or let grow) viable minor leagues, to give those athletes who aren't interested in being real students a place to go.
Another solution: Make freshmen ineligible. Many coaches would scream, but so many of the problems the NCAA faces would be gone overnight.
Surely beats the horrid One-And-Done rule!
-JUB
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