The episode was largely devoted to exploring the not-so-publicized student part of the term "student-athlete". They interviewed a guy from Texas A&M (sorry, can't remember his name) who said that he felt he had gotten more of an education in High School than he did in college. He pretty much said that expectaions for athletes were very low at A&M and that he had been directed to specific classes - one of them (and I'm NOT making this up) was called "Floral Arranging". They also interviewed a judge who used to be a prof at the "U" who said that he'd felt pressured to pass some of his football player students who really didn't deserve it. Costas also talked to Donna (stick my head in the sand) Shalala about the judges' claims and, big surprise, she denied it and said that he, "didn't know what he's talking about." Hmmm...I wonder Donna, were you in his classroom; did you see the alleged instances of cheating he mentioned? There was also mention of a star wideout for Miami who had gotten caught cheating by this same prof and was sent before the school's judiciary committe (or whatever the U calls it). At first, he was suspended from school for 2 semesters, but later, had that sentence reduced so that all he missed was a summer session. Shalala claimed it had nothing to do with the fact that he was a great player. Ummmm...ok.
Next, they had a segment with a panel including the lovely Sally Jenkins from the WP, Reggie Miller and pres of the NCAA, Myles Brand. Brand, like Shalala, came off as pretty unbelieveable, IMHO. Costas' show was really focused on the two big revenue producing sports (Bball and Fball) and Brand started out with some crap about graduation rates for student athletes in the NCAA were actually higher than the general student population. To his credit, Costas called him out his BS and brought the focus back onto the big revenue sports. As an aside, does Brand remind anyone else of Woody Allen? He came across as a bit slimy and disengenuous to me for some reason. No wonder RMK and he didn't get along.
Of course, my favorite piece was when they interviewed K. Costas asked him about a wide range of stuff (including the LAX scandal). They even explored some of the hating that's been going on. Wisely, Coach said that he just doesn't pay attention to any of that stuff. Good advice for us all, I think. Great interview with his daughter too. I really do with all the K haters would at least watch an interview like that. But why do that when blindly hating is so much easier! Anyway...very interesting show. Can't say I was all that surprised to hear about the sorry education that many kids are getting, but there were definitely some eye-openers. Hopefully, the show will at least bring the subject out in the spotlight a bit more. It runs again throughout the week so check it out if you didn't get a chance tonight.