Failing our athletes

If you’ve been watching the IU men’s basketball team on the road this season, you’ve probably noticed a few things. We’re winning, and senior guard A.J. Ratliff hasn’t been on the bench recently. No, he’s not out on the court. He’s not on the bench because he just hasn’t been traveling with the team. “Personal issues” have prevented him from traveling with the Hoosiers on road trips.\nAll this after spending the first nine games of the season on the bench – but still traveling – because of academic ineligibility, and then being forced to sit out the 10th, 11th and 12th games because of an ankle injury? Since then, he has averaged 1.7 points and 11.3 minutes per game, a far cry from his average playing time of 20 minutes and 6.3 points per game the previous three seasons. The question many students asked at the beginning of the season was “How the crap does someone majoring in general studies fall into academic probation?” Then, we looked forward to Ratliff’s return, wondering “How the crap are other teams gonna deal with us when we’ve got Ratliff, Jordan Crawford, Armon Bassett and Eric Gordon?” A few games into the season, many of us asked, “What the crap is going on?” \nNow that’s a question IU should deal with. Perhaps Ratliff’s story sheds light on a bigger issue. Athletes deserve all the tutoring IU can offer, but there must be repercussions for their academic performance. Academic ineligibility should span the entire athletic season, not just a semester. Let us be clear, this is not an attack on student athletes. There are few people who are more disciplined or work harder than our Hoosier athletes. But there is a reason why they are called student athletes and not athlete students. \nOf course, we’re not ignorant. Gordon did not come to IU for the primary purpose of getting an education, and James Hardy is spending more time training for the NFL than he is sprucing up his resume for an interview with Eli Lilly. And let’s face it, Big Ten sports add as much to the IU atmosphere as anything else in Bloomington. But our athletes should be held to a higher standard than they are now.\nBeing declared academically ineligible for an athletic team should not just mean for that semester. If you’re off the team, you’re off for the season. It’s not fair to the team to have a player who is forced to sit out a number of games, matches or meets (and was once a major contributor, as in Ratliff’s case) to be put back on the team. Nor is it a good example to young fans in the audience. Classy programs are fueled by stringent policies. It’s time for us to buckle down.