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 Post subject: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:25 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:15 am
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Location: Alabamer
Interesting (albeit inadequately reported) sports news if you read on past the hed:

Melvin Ray quits baseball, wants to play football at UA

(I confess that I have no idea how to compress the actual newsworthy bits of the story into a good headline.)


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 Post subject: Re: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:49 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:33 pm
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Location: Texas
Interesting if you're a UA fan, but also emblematic of how the sports department (of just about any news org) is run like the entertainment/celebrity section instead of news:

Quote:
Several obstacles must be cleared before Ray could play football at UA. First, he would need a scholarship offer, and as of Monday he had yet to reach the UA coaching staff to inform them of his wishes.


You'd think we'd apply the same standard as when someone who says they're going to sue doesn't get one bit of ink until they file. Anyone want to lay odds that this guy doesn't even enroll?

Edited to add: In other words, everything that even approached "newsworthy" actually was in that headline.


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 Post subject: Re: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 3:04 pm 
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Quote:
Anyone want to lay odds that this guy doesn't even enroll?


Brings to mind what I thought was the biggest unanswered question in the story: Says he didn't meet academic requirements for enrolling after he was recruited. So can he even get in to UA, let alone be eligible for a scholarship. The thing reads like it'd be a whole different story had any of it been verified. I guess Dad talking to the paper was good enough.


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 Post subject: Re: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:53 pm 
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Heartodixie wrote:
Quote:
Anyone want to lay odds that this guy doesn't even enroll?


Brings to mind what I thought was the biggest unanswered question in the story: Says he didn't meet academic requirements for enrolling after he was recruited. So can he even get in to UA, let alone be eligible for a scholarship. The thing reads like it'd be a whole different story had any of it been verified. I guess Dad talking to the paper was good enough.

ISTR from my sports-fan days that athletes can take some community college courses and establish a decent GPA that way to become eligible. Of course, as you note, he hasn't done it yet.


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 Post subject: Re: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:55 pm 
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Heartodixie wrote:
ISTR from my sports-fan days that athletes can take some community college courses and establish a decent GPA that way to become eligible.


Sure can! Why, if a major midwestern university wants a half-ass 5-11 point guard badly enough, it can look the other way as he piles up 30 hours in a single summer!

Sorry, nothing personal. But you'd like to think that one of the advantages of having a world-class J-school within handgun range is to create a culture of looking at that sort of stuff and wondering whether there might be a story there.


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 Post subject: Re: Ho-hum ... oh!
PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:26 am 
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fev wrote:
Heartodixie wrote:
ISTR from my sports-fan days that athletes can take some community college courses and establish a decent GPA that way to become eligible.


Sure can! Why, if a major midwestern university wants a half-ass 5-11 point guard badly enough, it can look the other way as he piles up 30 hours in a single summer!

Sorry, nothing personal. But you'd like to think that one of the advantages of having a world-class J-school within handgun range is to create a culture of looking at that sort of stuff and wondering whether there might be a story there.


Sadly, j-schools may be in university-run company towns with newspapers that know what side their bread is buttered on and recruit bottom-tier students who can't get jobs at major metros.


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