• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

College credit for playing football? OSU gives credit... KSU gives letter grades!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
BuckeyeInTheBoro

BuckeyeInTheBoro

This space left intentionally blank
Long article, but a good read... we are mentioned and referred to several times, but at least at Ohio State it's a pass/fail and doesn't inflate the GPA.

Varsity athletes get college class credit


Here's some highlights:
Last fall semester, 69 Kansas State football players enrolled in Snyder's course -- ATHM 104 or "Varsity Football" -- in the school's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. According to documents obtained from Kansas State through state open records laws, only one of the 69 players enrolled in the class failed to receive one credit hour toward his academic degree, and all but four received grades of "A." This spring, 91 players enrolled in the course, including many who were repeating the class, and Snyder awarded 84 of them the highest letter grade, the records show.
Click to expand...
Many of the universities that boast the nation's most recognizable and successful football programs offer participation credits in football and other sports. Brigham Young, Florida State, Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State, all winners of a football national championship during the past 25 years, also have similar policies in place.
Click to expand...
Not 'Vital to Our Program'

At Ohio State, football players can repeat Buckeyes Coach Jim Tressel's two-hour course -- SFHP 196.06 or "Varsity Football" -- as many as five times for a total of 10 credits. Last fall, 91 student-athletes were enrolled in the course, and all received "satisfactory" grades, Ohio State records show. Ohio State's online registrar showed 90 of 100 seats are taken for Tressel's class this coming fall quarter.
Ohio State offers a participation course for each of its 21 intercollegiate sports teams, including ice hockey, lacrosse, pistol and riflery. The syllabus for each of the Buckeyes' "Varsity Sports" courses includes five objectives for student-athletes, including: "To develop their skill to its highest potential" and "To learn to strive to do their best under all circumstances but to make personal goals secondary to those of the team."

Unlike Kansas State, credits from Ohio State's participation courses can't be used toward degree requirements, but at all schools, they are counted in fulfilling the NCAA's eligibility rule of six hours of academic credit each semester. Most athletic conferences require athletes to earn additional credit hours; the Big Ten Conference, for example, requires athletes to complete 12 credit hours per semester. Under NCAA rules, athletes must complete at least 18 semester hours each academic year to retain their eligibility.

"I don't think it's vital to our program," Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger said. "If the faculty wants to change it, it's their prerogative to change it."
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I know quite a few friends who take these classes for multiple sports, they basically break down to a repeated orientation and study tables. With athletes giving up 20 hours to practice, plus optional film and wieight room time I think they are a good idea and help the coaches supervise and keep up with their players off the field, aiding them when needed.
 
Upvote 0
The hilarious part about the article is how they make it out to be such a big secret. I certainly saw those classes in my course booklet, it's not like they were only known about by a select group.

However, I would tend to agree that letter grades are not the way to go, unless they have some specific criteria for grading, like exams. I like the current system at OSU. It gives some credit for all the hours spent playing for the university, but doesn't inflate players GPA artificially.
 
Upvote 0
MolGenBuckeye said:
The hilarious part about the article is how they make it out to be such a big secret. I certainly saw those classes in my course booklet, it's not like they were only known about by a select group.

However, I would tend to agree that letter grades are not the way to go, unless they have some specific criteria for grading, like exams. I like the current system at OSU. It gives some credit for all the hours spent playing for the university, but doesn't inflate players GPA artificially.
Click to expand...
I'd rather see it the way it is than to give out grades for an exam like the one given to the Georgia basketball team.
What color does Georgia wear for home games?
How many players does each team play at one time? :tongue2:
 
Upvote 0
I got 1 hour of A every semester for football. It never did anything major to my GPA. If I had a 3.6 before I would get a 3.625. It isn't enough to make anyone eligible if they weren't before.
 
Upvote 0
There is a lot more learning in the Buckeye football program than most college courses. Think of all the communication skils the players must develop to face the media. What about the fitness program? Tressel's Block O of Life is very valuable. Learning to work toward team goals is invaluable. A lot of growth and learning goes on in varsity athletic programs.
 
Upvote 0
you can get credit for taking golf or bowling.... I'd say these guys work harder for their credit than a person taking the golf or bowling class...

I think it is a good idea, get them some credits for their work. It counts a credit hours, they still need to go through all the GEC's (I think that is what it is called at OSU) and college/major requirements to get their degree...
 
Upvote 0
I got 1 hour of A every semester for football. It never did anything major to my GPA. If I had a 3.6 before I would get a 3.625. It isn't enough to make anyone eligible if they weren't before.
Click to expand...
I agree that it doesn't make a big difference as a one hour course. The reason I'd rather see sports standardized as a pass/fail option is so that some school can't jack up the credit hours to unreasonably affect grade points.

I'd rather see it the way it is than to give out grades for an exam like the one given to the Georgia basketball team.
Click to expand...
I guess I don't see much difference between their exam and a free "A", other than the pretense of edumacation for those guys...maybe if a school wants to give out a grade, it becomes a compliance issue where they need to clear their curriculum with the NCAA?

you can get credit for taking golf or bowling
Click to expand...
Unless you fail golf like me! I never dropped it, figuring there was a waitlist, and I'd get booted. My only F in college... :!
 
Upvote 0
My understanding is that KSU gives letter grades as part of its remedial reading program. If you want to learn to read, you'd better master the alphabet. And if you want to master the alphabet, start with the first few letters.
 
Upvote 0
i get credit for running track. we're only allowed to use it for one semester. part of our requirements are two phys ed classes, so it covers half of our requirements. i would say that given the hours we college athletes put in every week, we deserve that at the very least. i don't get a letter grade, but it just counts as credit towards the total needed to graduate.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top