Garrett Johnson is FSU's track athlete/Rhodes Scholar currently studying at Oxford. He apparently made some quotes to Bianchi and the Sentinel condeming FSU. That link is here, however, if someone could post it so I can read it, that would be great as the Sentinel's sports page is blocked for me at work.
It stirred up a controversy here in Tally by one of the Democraps bloggists, seen here
Johnson fired back in an e-mail to the Democrap read here.
Pretty entertaining reading if you ask me.
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
Rhodes Scholar says FSU's cheating was no secret
Mike Bianchi | SPORTS COMMENTARY
February 27, 2008
What you are about to read are the most cutting comments yet concerning the ongoing academic scandal at Florida State.
They are comments filled with frustration and tinged with condemnation. They blame the academic quagmire not so much on the students caught cheating but on a university bureaucracy and NCAA administrators who continue to perpetuate the academic shell game that pervades college athletics.
And here's the most damning part of all: These comments didn't come from some mudslinging sports columnist or some hoity-toity Harvard professor. And they weren't pulled off a University of Florida fan message board.
These comments are so cutting not because they came from some perceived enemy, but because they came from within. They came from Garrett Johnson, arguably the most decorated scholar-athlete in FSU history -- a young man who truly loves his university and feels a "debt of gratitude" for the opportunity FSU provided him.
"This [academic misconduct] is concerning not because of the negative attention it has brought on Florida State, but because it wasn't a secret," says Johnson, an FSU Rhodes Scholar who is currently in grad school at Oxford University in England. "People knew what was going on. For people in the institution to take the position that they were unaware of the situation is untrue.
"I can't list specific allegations. I can't say who knew what. I'm just saying it was no secret. It's sort of like the Mitchell Report in baseball where the players are the ones being accused of taking steroids when everybody involved in baseball knew it was happening."
These comments are both refreshingly unfiltered and disquietingly unsettling. You see, Garrett Johnson is not just some disgruntled jock popping off about something he knows nothing about. If we listen to anybody about the plight of the "athlete-student" then it should be a true "student-athlete." Who better to judge what's wrong with the system than an athlete who did right by the system?
Johnson is certainly that. He was the NCAA shot put champion and the team captain who led the Seminoles to their first men's track and field title in 2006. He also happens to be only the second Rhodes Scholar in FSU history. He graduated magna cum laude in just three years with a double major in political science and English. For two years, he served as president of the FSU Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
"I have greatly benefited from my relationships and mentorships at Florida State," Johnson says. "I have nothing but deep respect for those who have helped me along the way, but there are problems. And to brush those problems under the rug is to perpetuate them.
"My purpose in providing criticism of the academic/athletic balance at the NCAA and Florida State is because I want to look out for student-athletes and protect their best interest. . . . I don't want to see student-athletes take the fall for this. This is all systemic and part of the culture of the NCAA, and it doesn't just happen at Florida State. It happens at almost every major Division I-A school. It's sad, but that's the reality of the beast."
Johnson is right. The entire system is rife with rhetoric. You want to know what the real scandal is at Florida State? It's not tutors who gave athletes the answers to an exam in an online music course. No, the scandal is that tutors were actually needed in such an easy class.
Let's get real here. Isn't the dirtiest little untold story in college sports about how universities spend millions of dollars on "academic support" to keep woefully under-performing students eligible for competition? Why else would a school like Florida State need to employ nine full-time staff members and dozens and dozens of tutors?
Many schools will tell you their academic support staffs report to university deans, but in reality they are bankrolled by the athletic department. Now ask yourself: Are academic counselors and tutors really going to bite the hand that funds them?
It's a never-ending circle. The academic-support staff is subsidized by the athletic department, which is funded by the football program, which is populated with star players who desperately need academic-support to stay eligible.
Then, of course, there's the ultimate hypocrisy: That these marginal students, who badly need to concentrate on their studies, instead spend most of their time concentrating on their sport. Which is why they end up in cupcake online music courses in the first place.
Johnson, for one, doesn't seem to think the NCAA or his own university will change much even in the wake of the ongoing academic scandal.
"I believe it is in the interest of self-preservation to perpetuate the status quo, despite the current rhetorical position taken by FSU and the NCAA," Johnson wrote in an e-mail "If academics REALLY take priority, I suggest athletic administrators and coaches demonstrate this by reducing their salaries to create parity with the tenured professors that work to prepare their athletes for long-term success. This would REALLY send a message."
It's no secret that the entire academic/athletic structure at big-time college football and basketball programs is inherently fraudulent.
You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that.
But the message is much more meaningful if you happen to be one.
Mike Bianchi | SPORTS COMMENTARY
February 27, 2008
What you are about to read are the most cutting comments yet concerning the ongoing academic scandal at Florida State.
They are comments filled with frustration and tinged with condemnation. They blame the academic quagmire not so much on the students caught cheating but on a university bureaucracy and NCAA administrators who continue to perpetuate the academic shell game that pervades college athletics.
And here's the most damning part of all: These comments didn't come from some mudslinging sports columnist or some hoity-toity Harvard professor. And they weren't pulled off a University of Florida fan message board.
These comments are so cutting not because they came from some perceived enemy, but because they came from within. They came from Garrett Johnson, arguably the most decorated scholar-athlete in FSU history -- a young man who truly loves his university and feels a "debt of gratitude" for the opportunity FSU provided him.
"This [academic misconduct] is concerning not because of the negative attention it has brought on Florida State, but because it wasn't a secret," says Johnson, an FSU Rhodes Scholar who is currently in grad school at Oxford University in England. "People knew what was going on. For people in the institution to take the position that they were unaware of the situation is untrue.
"I can't list specific allegations. I can't say who knew what. I'm just saying it was no secret. It's sort of like the Mitchell Report in baseball where the players are the ones being accused of taking steroids when everybody involved in baseball knew it was happening."
These comments are both refreshingly unfiltered and disquietingly unsettling. You see, Garrett Johnson is not just some disgruntled jock popping off about something he knows nothing about. If we listen to anybody about the plight of the "athlete-student" then it should be a true "student-athlete." Who better to judge what's wrong with the system than an athlete who did right by the system?
Johnson is certainly that. He was the NCAA shot put champion and the team captain who led the Seminoles to their first men's track and field title in 2006. He also happens to be only the second Rhodes Scholar in FSU history. He graduated magna cum laude in just three years with a double major in political science and English. For two years, he served as president of the FSU Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
"I have greatly benefited from my relationships and mentorships at Florida State," Johnson says. "I have nothing but deep respect for those who have helped me along the way, but there are problems. And to brush those problems under the rug is to perpetuate them.
"My purpose in providing criticism of the academic/athletic balance at the NCAA and Florida State is because I want to look out for student-athletes and protect their best interest. . . . I don't want to see student-athletes take the fall for this. This is all systemic and part of the culture of the NCAA, and it doesn't just happen at Florida State. It happens at almost every major Division I-A school. It's sad, but that's the reality of the beast."
Johnson is right. The entire system is rife with rhetoric. You want to know what the real scandal is at Florida State? It's not tutors who gave athletes the answers to an exam in an online music course. No, the scandal is that tutors were actually needed in such an easy class.
Let's get real here. Isn't the dirtiest little untold story in college sports about how universities spend millions of dollars on "academic support" to keep woefully under-performing students eligible for competition? Why else would a school like Florida State need to employ nine full-time staff members and dozens and dozens of tutors?
Many schools will tell you their academic support staffs report to university deans, but in reality they are bankrolled by the athletic department. Now ask yourself: Are academic counselors and tutors really going to bite the hand that funds them?
It's a never-ending circle. The academic-support staff is subsidized by the athletic department, which is funded by the football program, which is populated with star players who desperately need academic-support to stay eligible.
Then, of course, there's the ultimate hypocrisy: That these marginal students, who badly need to concentrate on their studies, instead spend most of their time concentrating on their sport. Which is why they end up in cupcake online music courses in the first place.
Johnson, for one, doesn't seem to think the NCAA or his own university will change much even in the wake of the ongoing academic scandal.
"I believe it is in the interest of self-preservation to perpetuate the status quo, despite the current rhetorical position taken by FSU and the NCAA," Johnson wrote in an e-mail "If academics REALLY take priority, I suggest athletic administrators and coaches demonstrate this by reducing their salaries to create parity with the tenured professors that work to prepare their athletes for long-term success. This would REALLY send a message."
It's no secret that the entire academic/athletic structure at big-time college football and basketball programs is inherently fraudulent.
You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that.
But the message is much more meaningful if you happen to be one.
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IHateUGAlyDawgs
- Posts: 8155
- Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:57 pm
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
I gotta be honest...I don't see how he was misrepresented in that column.
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annarborgator
- Posts: 8886
- Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 5:48 pm
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
Agreed. He's just pissed his quotes led to the conclusion of Bianchi that every program is "inherently fraudulent."
I've never met a retarded person who wasn't smiling.
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IHateUGAlyDawgs
- Posts: 8155
- Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:57 pm
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
some of the comments below the article are quite funny.
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
Garrett Johnson slams FSU?
What did Bianchi say in his article today? Guess I could look it up.