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I like women's basketball. With only the rare dunker, women's ball tends to be more team ball, more interesting. I went to a college with a great women's basketball tradition -- Texas Tech, Sheryl Swoopes and all that. So, I read today in the NYT that Courtney Paris, a senior center for the Oklahomma Sooners women's team, has vowed to pay back her scholarship if her team does not win the national championship, no easy bet! So, people are all abuzz about whether this self-made challenge is inspiring or insulting. I applaud Courtney Paris (who seems to have the future professional career to enable her to do this, as well as a father who was in the NFL), and here is my counter to the naysayers. I just hope the Sooners stay alive in the tournament today so we can keep talking about it!

We don't want to give the impression that college athletes' scholarships are tied to performance in anyway. OK, besides the obvious chuckles, let's think about this. First, colleges give scholarships to those who are great performers. Not every kid that wants to play sports gets to in college, and certainly they don't all get scholarships. Scholarships are set aside for the best. If the recipient quits the team, then I assume the scholarship ends. However, some quoted for the article emphasize that all an athlete is required to do is her best effort to fulfill her scholarship obligations. But, I would assume that a coach could cut someone from the team who wasn't putting in her "best effort." I think it's quite fine for Paris to say that she is going to hold herself to a higher standard because she knows what her "best effort" is.

Part II -- There is no pay for performance in college sports. There may be no explicit "pay for performance," and maybe that's for the best. Scholarships with milestones and bonuses might be detrimental to college sports. I get that. But, we emphasize performance both in other parts of the university and in the private sector all the time. Elementary school teachers gets bonuses based on their kids' test scores. Is Paris' offer worse? I went to college on a full academic scholarship. However, if my gpa fell below a 3.5, I would have lost it. I didn't see anyone saying how unfair that was, as long as I was giving it my best effort!

This puts too much pressure on the other teammates. Do we think that the other teammates will feel responsible if the Sooners don't win the championship and Paris has to pony up? I really doubt that. And I'm sure they already feel pressure to win. In case you haven't noticed, the opportunities for female athletes professionally are pretty scarce. So, most of the senior players are in their (literal) final period. This may give them an extra dose of an inspiration.

She shouldn't be held to her bargain. That's fine. I'm sure the University of Oklahoma isn't going to put themselves in that situation. However, let's remember that we allow many 18-22 year-olds to contractually obligate themselves to paying student loans in the same amount or more that Ms. Paris is wagering. We don't seem to think it's unfair across the board for someone to graduate from college with that amount of debt hanging over the head -- even for people with much less earning potential than Ms. Paris. Let's not infantilize Ms. Paris while we're holding her Sooner classmates to the benefit of their student loan and credit card bargains.

Paris doesn't owe the University of Oklahoma anything but her best efforts. Since when? I'd like to poll all scholarship recipients out there to see if their alma mater has ever suggested that they should repay their gift. Someone calls me during dinner almost every night to remind me of how much I benefitted from my scholarship and how much I should give that opportunity to someone else. Even without Paris' wager, at some point, she would get a call from the development office reminding her that her gifts to the University of Oklahoma will help someone just like her.

But I can't compete with the best quote this morning: Gwen Knapp writing in The San Francisco Chronicle: “She grabbed attention for a women’s sport without removing her clothes, playing against men or plotting to whack a rival’s knee.”

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I like women's basketball. With only the rare dunker, women's ball tends to be more team ball, more interesting. I went to a college with a great women's basketball tradition -- Texas Tech, Sheryl Swoopes and all that. So, I read today in the NYT that Courtney Paris, a senior center for the Oklahomma Sooners women's team, has vowed to pay back her scholarship if her team does not win the national championship, no easy bet! So, people are all abuzz about whether this self-made challenge is inspiring or insulting. I applaud Courtney Paris (who seems to have the future professional career to enable her to do this, as well as a father who was in the NFL), and here is my counter to the naysayers. I just hope the Sooners stay alive in the tournament today so we can keep talking about it!

We don't want to give the impression that college athletes' scholarships are tied to performance in anyway. OK, besides the obvious chuckles, let's think about this. First, colleges give scholarships to those who are great performers. Not every kid that wants to play sports gets to in college, and certainly they don't all get scholarships. Scholarships are set aside for the best. If the recipient quits the team, then I assume the scholarship ends. However, some quoted for the article emphasize that all an athlete is required to do is her best effort to fulfill her scholarship obligations. But, I would assume that a coach could cut someone from the team who wasn't putting in her "best effort." I think it's quite fine for Paris to say that she is going to hold herself to a higher standard because she knows what her "best effort" is.

Part II -- There is no pay for performance in college sports. There may be no explicit "pay for performance," and maybe that's for the best. Scholarships with milestones and bonuses might be detrimental to college sports. I get that. But, we emphasize performance both in other parts of the university and in the private sector all the time. Elementary school teachers gets bonuses based on their kids' test scores. Is Paris' offer worse? I went to college on a full academic scholarship. However, if my gpa fell below a 3.5, I would have lost it. I didn't see anyone saying how unfair that was, as long as I was giving it my best effort!

This puts too much pressure on the other teammates. Do we think that the other teammates will feel responsible if the Sooners don't win the championship and Paris has to pony up? I really doubt that. And I'm sure they already feel pressure to win. In case you haven't noticed, the opportunities for female athletes professionally are pretty scarce. So, most of the senior players are in their (literal) final period. This may give them an extra dose of an inspiration.

She shouldn't be held to her bargain. That's fine. I'm sure the University of Oklahoma isn't going to put themselves in that situation. However, let's remember that we allow many 18-22 year-olds to contractually obligate themselves to paying student loans in the same amount or more that Ms. Paris is wagering. We don't seem to think it's unfair across the board for someone to graduate from college with that amount of debt hanging over the head -- even for people with much less earning potential than Ms. Paris. Let's not infantilize Ms. Paris while we're holding her Sooner classmates to the benefit of their student loan and credit card bargains.

Paris doesn't owe the University of Oklahoma anything but her best efforts. Since when? I'd like to poll all scholarship recipients out there to see if their alma mater has ever suggested that they should repay their gift. Someone calls me during dinner almost every night to remind me of how much I benefitted from my scholarship and how much I should give that opportunity to someone else. Even without Paris' wager, at some point, she would get a call from the development office reminding her that her gifts to the University of Oklahoma will help someone just like her.

But I can't compete with the best quote this morning: Gwen Knapp writing in The San Francisco Chronicle: “She grabbed attention for a women’s sport without removing her clothes, playing against men or plotting to whack a rival’s knee.”

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