Week 5 brings us to Legal Issues in Higher Education. Like accounting, the law classes I took during my undergrad, were not fun and were dry and dragging and full of case studies that made me want to claw my eyes out and enroll in a class to learn legalese because that's the only way you could get through any of them. 4+ years later, case studies haven't changed.
And then we were introduced to the NCAA Division I Manual. Mind blown. 431 pages covering 33 basic bylaws that get dissected into 15+ subsections whose 10 subsections each have 5 more subsections. REALLY?! And they're self imposed rules. Everyone is afraid that everyone else is going to cheat so they want to do everything they can to stop it. In reality what these rules are doing is ruining sport for the kids who end up playing them. Most of these rules cause so much confusion that it's no wonder there are minor violations every year by virtually every institution in the country. Who can keep up with all of them?
I'm glad I have a general understanding of the bylaws and what's allowed and what's not, but like accounting, I'm glad there are compliance departments who can keep track of all of this because there is just way too much to stay on top of! I also learned that if you're not sure, ask. Because while in some cases it's better to jump first and ask forgiveness later, sometimes it's not and you never want to play with a student-athlete's career, because if you put it in jeopardy it will come back to bite you.
No comments:
Post a Comment