If the low graduation rates for Ohio State football and men’s basketball players are in any way misleading, it’s because the incredibly low numbers don’t illustrate that there are some big-name athletes who place their education just as highly as they do their sports.
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The numbers are an excellent indication of the trend in sports for athletes to leave college early for professional teams where a big paycheck and a star’s lifestyle await them. It seems now that sports fans have to hope that players will stay as long as three years, not the token four.Buckeye fans faced this dilemma last spring, after the 1999-2000 men’s basketball season, when the fate of Michael Redd and Ken Johnson hung in the balance.Redd left OSU and was picked in the second round of the draft, 43rd overall, by the Milwaukee Bucks. Johnson, a first-round draft prospect, petitioned the NCAA for another year of eligibility, which was granted.”There were so many pluses of me staying,” Johnson said. “Not only do I get to graduate but I get to grow mentally, physically and spiritually.”For the 6-foot-11 shot-blocking machine, a bachelor’s degree in art was the central reason for remaining at OSU another year.”My family, especially my grandmother, always stressed getting your education,” he said. “That was always number one. People can take the ball away, but they can’t take your education away.”Johnson sat out his freshman year because he did not qualify academically. He was granted an additional year of eligibility for two reasons, a learning disability and he had completed 75 percent of his degree program.”Getting motivated academically is really hard,” he said. “Benefits (for student athletes) are we have tutoring, but really you’re so tired after practice that you don’t want to open a book.”This sentiment is echoed by a former Buckeye student athlete.Jefferson Kelley played football at OSU in 1996 and 1997. After his second season, the highly recruited offensive tackle out of Colerain High School in Cincinnati, left the team because of a serious right shoulder injury. Kelley graduated from OSU two years later.”In the fall, 70 percent of the day is football,” he said. “It’s like having a full-time job plus school, it can be tough and stressful. The last thing after a full day is to want to do schoolwork.”Kelley graduated from high school with a 4.3 GPA and was 16th out of 430 in his class. His injury was so severe that if he continued to play he ran the risk of losing the use of his arm.”It was pretty rough giving up football and academics was never a part of it,” he said. “I always wanted to get my degree, but if I could have gone into the NFL early, I would have, but then I would have come back to get my degree.”For Kelley, getting a college diploma is very important, but he does not feel that athletes who have the opportunity to leave early should stay in college the full four years.”I don’t know any 21-year-old who would give up making a million dollars,” he said. “It’s a lot easier because senior year you could suffer an injury. If you had left and gotten an injury your rookie year, at least you would have gotten your signing bonus. The guys who come back to get their diploma deserve a lot of credit.”One such player is Eddie George.The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner is entering his fourth year with the Tennessee Titans and signed a six-year, $42 million contract last week. Since leaving OSU, George has been returning to Columbus during the off-season and attending classes so that he can earn his degree in landscape architecture.”What Eddie George is doing is what I think players who leave early should do,” Kelley said. “He left, is making a lot of money and he’s working to get his degree. If he has a career-ending injury this year or in the future, he’ll still have the money he’s made but also he’ll have a degree to fall back on.”In terms of graduation percentages, when George does officially graduate from OSU, he will not be counted in the statistics as a graduate.Only an athlete that graduates within six years is counted towards the graduation rates. George came to OSU in 1994, seven years ago.Although Johnson, Kelley and George are exceptions to the rule, they are also notable names that place academics just as highly as they place sports.They all set standards of student athlete excellence, achievements that sometimes go unrecognized when low graduation rates dominate the scene.As the statistics seem to indicate, college sports have merely become a stepping stone to a professional career, with very little emphasis on academics. This ideology has been created not only by the players, but also by the university.”I think that something that is often overlooked is that the recruiting process is done only by the coaches, not professors or the TA you’ll have for science class,” Kelley said. “You’re being brought to the school for a sport. School is only a secondary thing”
