[Observing]

So a group of college faculty members from across the nation has issued a statement condemning UK, coach Cal. and the basketball program and its scheduling. Well isn't that just devastating?( please read the word "devastating" with a snarky, sarcastic intonation that can't be conveyed
thru typing)

It's funny but I don't seem to recall hearing these "professors" complaining when Tom Izzo was scheduling games on aircraft carriers. I heard not
a peep from them when UK was in decline under Tubby Smith, yet agreed
to play Mich St in a dome just to set an attendance record. There doesn't seem to be a record of their complaint when these conferences play league tnmts. in cities where they don't have member shcools. These statements don't ever seem to get issued for any other school does anything out of teh ordinary that brings it such great attention.

Equally puzzling is how this self-satisfied group can't seem to summon the gumption to criticize their personal institutions of employment for desperately trying to recruit these same players that bring Cal such derision. And why is it I wonder, that not even the other three programs participating in the champions series, at neutral sites, with this self same renegade UK program;
don't come in for the same censure?

What a load of hypocritical manure. These sanctimonious jackasses should be fired from their schools for putting on display the intellectual bankrupcty present amongst their respective institutions.

Big time collegiate athletics LONG AGO ceased to have anything to do with academics, or with the "mission" of education. It is a business. And it is a
business that brings in far more money to the schools, than just whatever revenues the programs may earn. They allow the schools to leverage the attention and good will the teams generate, to go hat in hand to alumni and businesses for fat donations and endowments. It gives them tons of exposure that puts their names in front of millions of potential students that arte not athletes.

As for exploiting the students, what a crock. Even though a large majority of these kids may not take the study part of student-athlete seriously, that's no one's fault but their own. They are given the opportunity, even if the schools don't really care if they take advantage of it. And among the 4000 odd basketball players that may be playing in a given year, how many of them didn't start out dreaming about being good enough to go to the NBA after one year of college? 4-5, tops? And among them, how many wouldn't leave school afer one year of they felt certain of being a top 5 pick in the draft? A half a dozen, maybe?

So professors, take a look in the mirror. If you want to be biblical about it,
try removing the beam from your eye, before pointing out the mote in Ky's.
UK's hypocrisy quotient is much lower than your's. And our coach probably
has a far greater commitment to the welfare of his players than your's does.
If you want to issue a condemnation of collegiate athletics, then start on your own doorstep, and be sure you refuse any endowment checks that might
come from someone who wears a Hometown U tee-shirt on the weekends. Otherwise, take your "statement" and stick it where the academic light doesn't shine.