Paying College Athletes

This has been in the news recently with Johnny Manziel being paid for signing sports memorabilia.  At first I was thinking why shouldn't someone be able to sell their own autograph, that seems unfair.  Let me start off by saying I do not think college athletes should be paid.  That's not to say I don't think they deserve to be paid, they do after all bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to the NCAA.  However, I think it's a bad idea to start paying college athletes in any way and here's why.

First and foremost, college athletes are told they are to be student athletes.  We've all seen those commercials about how they are going pro in something other than sports, well they'd better be focused on getting an education.  A free one at that.  There is real value that we should help people see in getting your whole college education paid.  Also, let's not act like this is some awful burden these players have to carry around, playing college sports.  Please, it's a dream of all these athletes to play sports at this high of a level.  That's my first reason.

Second,  lower level teams aren't going to be able to compete.  Say we allow players to get paid for signing a jersey or a card or something.  Now, for example, say we have a high level recruit that has always dreamed about playing for his local school, let's say BYU, and being the star. However, his family has financial troubles and a bigger school, let's say Alabama, comes out and starts talking with him.  They can tell him that boosters will pay him thousands of dollars for signing one thing.  Boosters would soon turn out to be the new recruiters.  It's going to become a game of how much money are your alumni willing to put into college sports.  Small teams aren't going to be able to compete to get high level recruits.  They already have so many other disadvantages such as equipment and facilities that this would just completely demolish low level teams having a chance to compete.  A booster can offer anything they want in exchange for an autograph they don't even care about and that is where this whole system can break down.

In the end I feel like it would be less detrimental to all of college sports to only allow players to be paid a small "stipend" by the school.  There has to be a line somewhere and in the end it really is just simplest to have no money paid to student athletes.  That's my two cents.  Don't pay the players, it will just get out of control.

Start of School

Another semester of school.  Hopefully I've only got a couple more of these left.  I'm not very good about being consistent with the whole blogging but I'm trying to be better.  School is going to be brutal again, more math classes...  I'm starting to realize as well that last summer just might be my last "summer" vacation.  If I can, fingers crossed, get a job next summer I won't be having another summer break like this last one.  

Summer is fun.  Kelsey and I got to go on some trips, see some shows, learn to play tennis, go boating, and hang out with family.  It's really too bad the working world can't take a note on the education world.  Breaks are needed.  I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving break.  Some day in the future maybe I'll miss having these math classes, but I probably won't.  

Coming to and End

Finals are brutal. Stressing and studying for hours on end and for what? One test.  That's all it is.  You are required to take one test at the end of the year the that really no matter how much extra you study a teacher can still make it almost impossible to do well on.  You have learned in depth material from the entire year and then you get to be tested on it.  This final can determine your whole grade, yet at this point, it's really hard to get me to want to study more.  It just rarely seems worth it to study for hours on end for this one test, but we have to. If I don't, I know I'm not smart enough to get a good enough grade.  What's more frustrating is the fact that I don't ever see this test, I don't see what I missed, or know much about it.  I just see my grade that's posted on AIM and then get depressed.  Well that's the life of a student. 

Married LIfe

I really love being married.  I have the most incredible wife in the world.  She is always so patient with me; she lets me do the things I love even when it may not be convenient for her.  It's awesome to come home to someone after a long day and have someone be there for you, to love you and care for you.  I think it's something everyone in the world needs, someone to love them.  I love Kelsey Gill.
School is finally winding down.  There are tons of presentations and finals left to do but I think I'm almost getting to a point where it shouldn't be too awful.  I'm looking for a different better internship this summer and we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks. I don't really want to do an unpaid internship but it looks like that is what it will probably lead to.  Too bad, offer up my services for absolutely no cost.  Oh well, what can you do.

Conference Weekend

For the first time in my life I got to attend the priesthood session of General conference.  What a deal, marry an amazing woman (who just happens to be related to an important person in Salt Lake) and you get to go to conference sessions too.  She of course has gotten to do this her whole life, but little ole Mitch from Kansas is still just awe struck while we walk through these tunnels together, passing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of modern day Prophets.  How crazy is that!? These people have seen and heard things that most every other person in the world will never experience.  Then we get to sit at their feet and listen to them teach us.  What a cool tradition.  It’s unfortunate that sometimes it can be a little hard to stay attentive in the nice warm room they put all these people in.  Never the less, still just an awesome experience.  I love conference!

Easter

Happy Easter!  It's finally spring.  It's not freezing cold in the mornings.  Only every now and then do I have to scrape my car of all the ice that covers the windshield.  The roads are dangerous to drive on in the mornings, life is good.

The only bad part of spring is finals.  I've got more math and stats tests this week.  I'm tired of tests and it's this time of the semester that I really do just feel like throwing in the towel sometimes.  School can be rough (e.g., papers, blogging assignments, projects, and tests).  It just wears me out by the end.  Only a couple more weeks, push through.

This week I was supposed to register for classes but haven't been able to yet.  So as all my classes are filling up with other people I'm waiting on an ecclesiastical endorsement to go through.  Sometimes there are just too many hoops to jump through with BYU.

NCAA Tournament

It's halftime of one of the ugliest basketball games I've ever watched, the KU vs. UNC game.  Both teams shot about 25 percent and turned it over like no ones business.  I've watched AAU games that were more organized than that was.  The basketball games at halftime of the BYU games, yes the games between 4th and 5th graders, are easier to watch than that was.  Atleast they have excuses for not scoring.  What excuse does a 7 foot person have for missing a lay-up? Seriously, it's embarrassing that so many people had to watch such an ugly game.  I love basketball, but that was hard to watch.  It was almost as painful as trying to do my math and stats homework... almost. Here's to hoping for a better half of basketball.
Also Professor Clarke has changed me into a grammar freak.  Yesterday I was at Dick's Sporting Good's and the employee was talking all about these ones and those ones.  It was painful to listen to actually, hard to believe I actually care about grammar.  Also I caught myself yesterday when I said me and my sister, I was ashamed of my grammar.  It's crazy because my mom has been trying to change all these habits of mine my whole life.