Sex and the (Univer)City by Alexis

Sex and the (Univer)City by Alexis - March 2017 Scholarship Essay

I would like to give a speech about the different treatment between academics and athletes in the college recruitment process. The following would be my speech:
I want to start out with sharing some exciting news in my life: my recent trip to Butler University. Boy, do I have a story to tell.
After a few months of receiving letters by paper mail and email, I was finally sold to visit by my “Butler Gift:” a bulldog sticker. The morning of the visit, I woke up at 4 a.m., exuberantly excited for the three-hour car ride I was set to take. After being shown the school, I was treated to a free all-you-can-eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Not only that, I received a tour of the College of Communication AND a 25-percent-off coupon to the book shop. I left the campus that day completely convinced that Butler wanted me.
Sadly, though, a few months later, I found that Butler didn’t want me as badly as I thought. Reading the news one day, I discovered how badly Louisville University wanted their students; they hired prostitutes to entice them. As I read the article, the glory I felt with my 25-percent-off gift card paled in comparison to the stripping parties held at Louisville. But like all good things, there was a catch: this deal, which some may say seems too good to be true, was only available to basketball players.
According to ESPN Outside the Lines, Louisville’s former graduate assistant coach, Andre McGee, paid for parties with strippers at Billy Minardi Hall from 2010 to 2014 for recruits and players. Five former players have since spoke out about the incident along with a few of the escorts.
The scandal first came to light when former escort Katina Powell wrote a book called “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen.” According to both Powell and the five anonymous players, McGee arranged parties for the recruits along with paying some of the dancers to have sex with the them.
Dang, and I really thought Butler wanted me…
Imagine if schools sought after high-achieving students like they did athletes. Imagine if they invited them down to an all-expenses-paid visit to their campus and took them to a Comic Con convention. Imagine if they took them out to expensive dinners to make their school look more appealing. The world would be so different.
However, this is not the case, and schools only seem to be seriously inclined to recruit athletes, which I think this is the most intriguing part of the entire scandal.
In her book, Powell offered a reason for McGee’s unethical methods for recruitment.
ESPN Outside the Lines reported, “[Powell] said McGee spoke often about needing to put Louisville in a position to sign the recruits: ‘He always said his job was on the line. And you could tell he was serious about it when he said it.’”
You see, when McGee recruited a good player, that meant the team would win more games, meaning the team would get more money. And although anyone who took government with Mr. Bochenski or Mr. Smith can tell you that money is the mother’s milk of politics, it also is the mother’s milk of life. In order for Louisville’s basketball program to be successful, they must continue to bring in money. So much intense pressure was placed upon the coaches to recruit impressive players that they saw shedding their morality as the only solution.
And that, right there, is where my problem with sports lies. Athletes and coaches alike are constantly aggravated with people calling on them to win more games and be more successful, which has led to insane hours of practice and a serious strain on mental and emotional health.
In high school, especially, the effects of these ever-growing standards can take their toll, and it doesn’t surprise me that bad decisions can arise. For some, like McGee, it can be creating a prostitution ring for recruits, but on a more high-school level, it can be turning to drugs as a coping mechanism.
Regardless of the causes of these moral violations, however, the message has been passed on to future university students: we care more about athletes than you. So while you’re sitting at home feeling special for receiving mail from the University of Louisville, just know that if you were really special, you wouldn’t be receiving an email, you’d be receiving sex.