Yet this has not put a damper on her effort to get colleges back on the right track, that would be the educational track, not the competitive sport one. .
Every week new controversies arise. Recently, thirty-nine copies of University of Tennessee athlete's transcripts were released to the Southeastern Conference investigator Bill Sievers. There were 105 grade changes for twenty-nine, athletes and Bensel-Meyers believes that some of the classes taken by these athletes are only existent so that athletes can remain eligible to play in their particular sport. The grade changes are far beyond mere coincidences. The fact that twenty-nine out of the thirty-nine had them appear on the transcripts causes questions to arise about the practices at Tennessee. .
Certain groups have made proposals to the NCAA and can only hope that their ideas will be put into effect immediately. Reform groups say that they "want to make sure universities don't lose sight of education in the face of competition and commercialism" ("New Test -). There have been reports that CBS has made an agreement with the NCAA to pay them six billion dollars over the next thirteen years to have the rights to televise the NCAA men's basketball tournament. That amount would pay the tuition of Tennessee's entire undergraduate population for more than forty-four years ("New Test -). That is an unbelievable amount of money just for the television rights to a college basketball tournament. This proves how commercialized college sports have become. ("College competition", miller, www.espn.com) .
It seems to be common knowledge that an education is essential to success. Yet, many people today believe that success can be an overnight thing. Only a tiny percentage of college football players actually get drafted to the National Football League. So for those who don't make, they must have a back up plan. If colleges were taking the right steps to properly prepare all students, then none of these athletes would have to worry.
