A Virtual Church

Can we talk about the portal?

Today

Everybody knows that college athletic programs bring in large revenues for their universities. Young college athletes are a crucial part of that revenue stream. For many years, housing and an education were reward enough for playing a sport in college.

Several years ago, the portal came into being. The portal evolved alongside Name Image Likeness. Athletes realized that without them, there would be no athletics in school.

Young athletes took agency for their own college careers. This was nothing about education, or loyalty to a school, or getting an education. It was purely about money and opportunity.

If an athlete enters the portal without guarantee of a place on the roster from another university, there is no guarantee their place will still be available from the team that gave the initial slot.

For many of the young athletes playing sports today, the luster of big money is the siren’s call of Homer’s Odessey. It is irresistible.

But the portal carries a “risk and reward” potential. If an athlete doesn’t get signed by another team, they could end up on the market again with no guarantee another school will sign them.

This played out in a recent game played by the ECU Pirates and BYU. The Pirates won, but they did it without most of their offensive line. Not every team has such a depth of talent.

People generally balk at rules and regulations. We want what we want when we want it.

Many of these young athletes likely come from homes that cannot pay for school. They have a bankable skill that could get damaged if they get injured.

I come from an era when school did start until after tobacco season was over. This meant we began the school after Labor Day and ended before Memorial Day. Summers were built around working in agriculture, especially the tobacco market. There were not so many teacher workdays in the school year.

The education we got was fine. My graduating class was 37 people. Many of us went to college. Duke was even available to us then.

The pressures on children and families today are shocking. We have young neighbors who are essentially taxi services for their kids’ after-school activities.

Teams began travel leagues. All year sports activity is normative.

A recent New York Times article reported that young athletes who play all year, are burned out by the time they get to college. Often, they leave a sport they like because they lose interest and passion for the sport.

A lot of potential is lost because of this.

Chariots of Fire, was a movie about the Summer Olympics of 1924. There were two British long distant runners who opted out of the race for religious reasons. They are part of history not because of winning another race but rather for their religious conviction.

Several options exist that would help this situation.

Teams could decide on schedules of play that would prevent families from being run ragged.

Kids whose parents have jobs on Sundays have a real problem. Time off work for sports schedules is difficult. And students with two working parents face other conflicts.

This has been a problem since I was in high school. Surely there are learned people who could set a schedule that worked for most and provide extra afterschool tutoring and study hall for homework time.

Maybe systems engineers could work on this problem.

The school year is stressful for most people. Kids go to school before the sun comes up and stay until after school activities are finished.

Homework time gets the leftover parts. That hardly seems smart. Smart school boards, teachers, and parents could make a workable plan.  After school childcare is an essential component of this problem.

Our friend, Joe Maveritic, often says, “The greatest purpose for public school education is to end up able to make a living, and a contribution to the general culture.”

Kids need liberal arts education, and civics, to be well rounded citizens. Music, art, and drama should be more than icing on the cake.

Rethinking things like the portal and deciding what outomes are necessary for a productive society is called for.

Parents alone can and should not make this entire decision. Teachers know their kids. If parents partner in healthy ways with teachers, administrators, and counselors, there might be a better outcome for our young people.

They deserve our best.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

 

 

 

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