Stricter GPA Requirements for Athletics

RiteDiva wrote:I think that's great. The reality of it is most (or probably, all) of these students will not go on to become professional athletes. They need to learn that academics are more important and other activities are a fun bonus for doing well in school. If they can't get keep a C-average in high school, they can't get scholarships and probably won't maintain good enough grades to play in college anyway.

Marc™ wrote:Used to be a time when all a student needed was a D-average to be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities, such as being on a sports teams. I just read about a school that bumped the GPA requirement to a 2.0 (C)....and as a result, more than 30% of the school's football team was put on suspension until they can bring their grades up. (They're still setting the bar too low.)
Most people support the new rule, but a surprisingly large number were against it....including (not surprisingly) the parents of the students affected, as well as faculty involved with the schools' athletic programs. They claim that it interferes with the students' rights (extracurricular activities are a privilege, not a right), and even go as far as to say that many of these students were banking on getting into colleges on athletic scholarships because they couldn't possibly succeed in any other way (what...as if they're trying to say it's the only way for the kid to get a college education? As if that will happen anyway. Those parent’s are pissed because of their delusion that their son…and let’s be real, we’re talking about male athletes for the most part, will be able to use their “college education” as a springboard into a multi-million dollar professional sports contract.) It was such a hot debate that it even made the local news. What's your opinion?