Slow Night

Not one bit of basketball was watched by me last night. Not one. A number of things kept me from seeing games, but at the end of the day, I have no new material. So, I give you a thought that I had a few months ago when I first heard talk about the proposal to give college players five years of eligibility. It's not much, but it's something:

There’s a new proposal for college basketball that, as I understand it, would give a player five years of eligibility rather than four. I’d have to assume that this is in some way related to the idea that many students nowadays are taking five years to complete their academic programs. I suppose I’ve been out of school for a bit, but back when I was in school, we had a name for people who legitimately took five years to get their undergrad degree. We called them “engineers.” I don’t necessarily dislike the idea of student-athletes getting another year of eligibility. Heck, most of them are taking the minimum number of credits each semester anyway, since they have to devote so much time to their sport. Let’s not kid ourselves, though, by saying that your 7 foot center who’s majoring in “General Studies” needs that extra year due to the fact that the requirements for the major are forcing all students to take longer than they used to. Take it from a guy who majored in two nearly worthless liberal arts subjects—those of us who aren’t working off a scholarship for 30 hours a week probably don’t need the extra year.

I should probably have some better insight tomorrow, as I'm hopeful that I can get out to see Travon Hughes of St. John's Military Academy, the 2nd ranked high school junior in the state of Wisconsin. If not, everyone's old friend Duke takes on one of the better Horizon League teams (UIC) tonight.

Oh, and if you need more reading material from me, you can check out my link on the right to the Big Ten Wonk, who has a wealth of Big Ten information. Or if you're lazy, you can just click here. Yesterday I responded to his inquiry about why Brian Butch is putting up small numbers for an All-American, and he was kind enough to use the info on his site.