The treatment of so-called "student-athletes" has reached a new low.On Friday night, tornadic winds ripped through downtown Atlanta and ripped off sections of the Georgia Dome, site of the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament, forcing postponement of the Kentucky-Georgia quarterfinal round game until Saturday.
The game has now been moved to Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum, which is understandable given the damage to the Georgia Dome and downtown Atlanta. Tipoff is set for 9 a.m. (Eastern).
Later Saturday night, the winner of the Kentucky-Georgia game will return to the court to play Mississippi State in a semifinal game.
Two games in one day? Are there no labor laws in Georgia? If I'm Kentucky's Billy Gillespie, pictured with this post, or Georgia's Dennis Felton, I go ahead and forfeit the second game in protest. And if I'm in Las Vegas, it would be time to take a hard look at Mississippi State to advance to the title game by burying what will be an exhausted Wildcat or Bulldog squad.
There's no way in hell a team should be playing twice in one day. No way.
Conference tournaments are nothing more than a money grab to begin with. If officials were truly concerned about "student-athletes," they would do the right thing and push the tournament back a day. But then that would interfere with Selection Sunday, wouldn't it?
Where is the outrage over this? The kids are being treated like table scraps.
9 comments:
I heard there was some discussion of having co champions between two or three teams so that they wouldn't have to play two games in one day.
These kids have grown up playing AAU ball, playing two games in day is not a huge problem...they're not unfamiliar with it having the aau experience...
you're comparing SEC basketball and all the money that comes with the NCAA tourney to AAU ball? You're completely missing the point, man.
Succinctly stated, the point is that there is a ton of money involved and while the NCAA says they care about the welfare of their athletes, this is one case in which money rules. Get that?
Two games in one day and it's not fair to the student-athlete? Apparently the Illinois High School athletic association would say otherwise. The girls and boys teams that qualify for the state tournament in Illinois play a semifinal game on Saturday morning, and then turn around and play the championship game later that evening.
Besides, the NCAA isn't keen on having the SEC finishing up their tournament on Monday. They want all of the games completed prior to the Selection Show at 6pm EDT.
Oh, spare us the crocodile tears.
For this argument, we won't even mention the travel, media exposure and opportunity to play in front of thousands of people.
Last Thursday, I got a tour of Arizona State's athletic center, replete with the computer labs, free tutoring, physical therapy and training tables that are foreign to the general student population.
I have two sons. If they have a chance to be "exploited" like today's Division I athletes are, I'm rushing to sign them up.
Two basketball games in one day is not over-taxing for these guys.
There's no way in hell a team should be playing twice in one day. No way.
Calm down, this is basketball, not football. Elite basketball players are used to playing multiple games in one day. Many tournaments use this format, including our state championships here in Illinois.
It's two basketball games, not two marathons. Do us all a favor and wash the sand out of your vagina before posting again.
In fairness to the SEC (a conference I loathe, by the way), they're doing the best they can considering. It has to finish its tournament before the selection at 6PM Sunday, so pushing it back is out of the question. It gives its automatic bid to the tourney champion, so declaring co-champs or no champ at all can't happen. As it stands, the final has been moved back to 3PM Sunday and TV exposure will be limited to regional CBS and (I think) ESPN2. And most high school leagues play two games in a day all the time. It's the only thing they can do now.
dude, you are such a whiny little girl. The horror, playing two games in a day. How did their little bodies ever hold up playing AAU and pick up basketball game all day!
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