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Double-A Zone

In September, the NCAA’s Double-A Zone blog asked if Wednesday-through-Saturday football games are appropriate. Having games occur throughout the week can be good for conference and institutional exposure, but those contests force student-athletes to miss more class time than they would if the games were conducted on Saturdays.

As Double-A Zone commentators point out, however, the issue is a tricky one:

“Not surprisingly, the D-III guy is going to weigh in and say it’s a bad idea. Football is ideal to play one day a week, and Saturday is the perfect time for it.”

– Pat Coleman, Publisher, D3football.com

“I too prefer football on Saturday, Pat, but I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world. When you compare how much class time is missed in the sport of football with others (baseball, softball, basketball), it’s not even close. Even a couple of weeknight games doesn’t make it close, so it could be a neat experience to play during the week once in a while.”

– Josh Centor,

Asst. Athletics Director, Carnegie Mellon University

“Other sports play during the week and miss multiple days of classes. Although I don’t advocate missing class, I don’t think it’s quite fair to the student-athlete that we demand different expectations for similar situations.”

– Leslie

“Having games during the week impacts more than just the athletes. It disrupts campuses, smaller cities where game-day traffic is a problem, and breaks the academic flow of the week. 90,000 people showing up for a game is a much bigger scope than any other sport, and for the most part, the other sports contests are shorter in duration. Football is a very different animal.

“See ‘Georgia Athletics Director: No Thursday Night Games for Bulldogs at Home’ at http://sportsontheair.blogspot.com/2008/08/georgia-athletics-director-no-thursday.html.

“Games should be on Saturday only, money be damned.”

– Christopher ByrnePublisher, “Eye on Sports Media”: http://www.eyeonsportsmedia.com/Guest Editor – Now Public: http://www.nowpublic.com/christopher-byrneNewsVine Sports Contributor: http://tcgathens.newsvine.com/

“I don’t think being DIII has anything to do with wanting student-athletes to do well both as athletes and as students. Missing classes does have an effect on one’s ability to understand class material. Maybe there is a compromise? As a rower, I don’t miss a great deal of school, but our basketball and volleyball teams do. To compensate, the teams work closely with professors, athlete-professor liaisons, and tutors to make sure the students are doing more than just passing – they are able to maintain GPAs that are comparable if not better than those of the (non-athlete) student body.”

Where do you stand on the issue?

Where do you stand on the issue? Is it OK for college football teams to play throughout the week and miss additional class time or should all games take place on Saturdays? Share your thoughts on the Double-A Zone (www.doubleazone.com).

The Double-A Zone is the official blog of the NCAA and features guest blogs, editorials and comments from readers around the country. If you would like to be a guest blogger for the Double- A Zone, contact Marta Lawrence, associate director of new media, at mhlawrence@ncaa.org.

Free Kick

Thirty-six student-athletes who competed at member institutions during 2007-08 or are competing during the current academic year collected a total of 44 medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. They were led by Southern California swimmer Rebecca Soni, who won one gold and two silver medals. Six other student-athletes claimed two medals each.

Making a splash

Numerous former NCAA student-athletes competed at the Olympics, including swimming relay gold medalist Cullen Jones – one of only three African-American swimmers ever to qualify for the Games. Even more importantly, the former North Carolina State student-athlete is encouraging minority children to learn to swim through USA Swimming’s Make a Splash Program.

Making a wish

Division II student-athletes raised a record $316,958 in their annual campaign to support Make-A-Wish. Schools in the Northeast-10 Conference raised more than $48,000 of the total.

Red Card

Hurricane havoc

High winds and heavy rain from the series of hurricanes that struck the Gulf and East Coasts during the late summer wreaked havoc on collegiate sports in all three NCAA divisions – but on the plus side, athletics administrators proved the effectiveness of emergency planning and demonstrated overriding concern for student-athletes and fans in decisions to relocate teams and postpone games.

Face value

A 36-year-old man’s message-board hoax – in which he used an Oklahoma City newspaper’s online news-page design in posting a fake article about the arrest of two student-athletes on drug-possession charges – prompted at least two Texas radio stations to report the story as fact.