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College Basketball and Freshmen Ineligibility

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With March Madness around the corner, our attention turns to college basketball. But with players going to the NBA sooner and with athlete compensation looming, many fans are concerned about the future of the college game. The rule for most of the 20th century was that college freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports. This changed in the 1970s but the idea has recently been making a bit of comeback. Is it a panacea for the problems plaguing the NCAA or is just window dressing that fails to address the real problems. Professor Chad Carlson of Hope College joins The Sports Ethics Show to discuss this and other NCAA issues.   Listen to this episode . Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: iTunes Subscribe

Not quite the trolley problem . . .

but still a good dilemma. Popovich angers Stern by resting Spurs' stars, but it's the right call I love a good ethical dilemma, and Gregg Popovich gave us a great one Thursday night. He benched four of his top players -- Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green -- for a national TV game against the Miami Heat. Popovich has benched Duncan numerous times before, because while they may build a statue of Duncan one day, they don't want him to play like one in May. But Parker is 30. Green is 25. What kind of a world is this when a 25-year-old professional basketball player needs rest? Go tell the guys on the 5 a.m. shift at the nearest assembly line that Green needed to rest. Before the opening tip, this looked like an unofficial forfeit -- giving up one game to improve your chances of winning the next. It seemed to go against the one fundamental principle we hold for all our sports: Everybody must try. But did it? Or was Popovich not only within his rights, but si...

Brooks on "The Jeremy Lin Problem"

David Brooks has a thoughtful essay in today's New York Times about Jeremy Lin and religion . An excerpt: For many religious teachers, humility is the primary virtue. You achieve loftiness of spirit by performing the most menial services. (That’s why shepherds are perpetually becoming kings in the Bible.) You achieve your identity through self-effacement. You achieve strength by acknowledging your weaknesses. You lead most boldly when you consider yourself an instrument of a larger cause. The most perceptive athletes have always tried to wrestle with this conflict. Sports history is littered with odd quotations from people who try to reconcile their love of sport with their religious creed — and fail. Jeremy Lin has wrestled with this tension quite openly. In a 2010 interview with the Web site Patheos, Lin recalled, “I wanted to do well for myself and my team. How can I possibly give that up and play selflessly for God?” Lin says in that inter...

Philosophy of Linsanity

I've been thinking a lot about Jeremy Lin lately--and about the social phenomenon of " Linsanity ." I wonder what philosophers have to add that will complement the discussion in the popular press. Is it the underdog story that is so compelling? i.e., Lin as Linderella ? Is Lin's ethnicity a compelling part of the story? Tim Dalrymple argues that it is, but that Lin's religious beliefs are even more significant . Is there anyone else here who is fascinated by Jeremy Lin and Linsanity, and why?