The difference in college divisions

Since I have already dipped my toe into a discussion about the difference between D-I and D-III athleties, I have decided to dive in headfirst and get it over with. Here is a link to the text of a letter Rich Rodriguez recently sent to the athletic director at West Virginia.

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/SPORTS0201/801250436/1004/SPORTS

In case you don't know how Rodriguez is, he is the former WVU coach who recently took over at Michigan. I am told he is an excellent coach. But that is not the point here.

The letter reads like something you would expect to find when a CEO of a major company leaves and hires a $500 an hour lawyer to finish the deal. If coaches are going to parse language this much regarding contracts and agreements, then is it any surprise that many of the athletes coached by these guys do the same thing?

College is supposed to be an educational experience that prepares a person for future life. The above letter can be contracted to these simple sentences: "I want to leave West Virginia to coach at Michigan. I don't owe the school and the players I recruited there a damn thing. And, by the way, if I leave Michigan two years from now for a job in the NFL or at another college, I will tell people in Ann Arbor the same thing. If you don't like it, sue me."

I guess this is providing a form of education because this stuff does happen in the real world. But if your boss (and the coach of a team is, after all, the boss) says the rules don't necessarily apply to him (her), then a player can reasonably decide the same can (or will be eventually) be true for them. With that kind of logic being applied, is it any wonder a player thinks he can beat up his girlfriend and simply move on or think a DWI can be quashed because the guy led the country in scoring?

This rarely happens at the D-III level because schools simply don't allow it. D-III school presidents have to answer to their alumni, who are frequently titans of business. Many of them want their athletic teams to win championships but academics still come first. Unfortunately, many D-I schools operate under the idea once uttered by a president of the U of Oklahoma: "I want this school to be something the football team would be proud of."

As my friend Steph pointed out, there are many good D-I coaches and athletes who do good things and are also good people. The more you read about situations like Rodriguez's, the more you are impressed with these people.