Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 November 22

= November 22 =

Peyton Manning college career questions
Us Limeys find college football hard to comprehend, as there's no real equivalent in any of our sports. Two questions:
 * 1) I gather from this video that it was unusual for him to be playing regularly as a freshman. Did that mean unusual for a quarterback or unusual for any position?
 * 2) Our article makes it clear he completed his degree a year before he left college. What was he doing at college if he wasn't studying?

Cheers --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:28, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
 * It is indeed unusual, in major college programs, for a first-year student to be on the varsity football team. This is true for all positions, but quarterback is especially rare as the learning curve is steeper. On the second question, just speculating, but Manning was mainly in college to launch his professional football career, so yes, playing football was his main motivation for staying longer. I expect he would have had to take some additional undergraduate classes during that time to maintain his eligibility, even if he had already earned a degree. College football (and basketball to some extent) in these types of large universities is a huge business, with tons of money involved, even if the players - nominally amateurs - aren't paid. It is nothing like the common perception many people would associate with college athletics, which is sports being played as a fun extracurricular activity. --Xuxl (talk) 15:42, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
 * ... which is how it is here. With the possible exception of The Boat Race. Are they "real" students, ? Thanks for the explanation, Xuxl. Manning was clearly exceptional of the exceptional. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 16:46, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Some are real students who earn actual degrees, and some simply show up for the minimum number of courses required to remain eligible. This was worse a couple of decades ago, before the NCAA began cracking down on universities whose graduation rates for student athletes were appalling. This was due to outside pressure, not to any preoccupation by the NCAA for the students' well-being. --Xuxl (talk) 18:15, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Competitors in The Boat Race are real students. However, there are two caveats. The first is that Oxbridge has a distinctive 'tutorial' system, so the minimum 'compulsory' scheduled activities in undergraduate arts subjects can be as little as two hours a week (you have to do a lot of reading, but nobody cares whether that is done in the library or the boathouse). Secondly, there is a definite tendency for high-level rowers to take courses that are perceived as easier and more flexible, such as Cambridge's MPhil Land Economy by thesis, for which there is only one compulsory academic appointment in the entire course.... If you are clever enough to get into Oxbridge and disciplined enough to be an Olympic-class rower, that course will give you plenty of time for extra-curricular activities. Matt's talk 23:26, 24 November 2018 (UTC)
 * After a student completes their degree, they may still have athletic eligibility remaining, and they can take graduate school classes. Not sure if that's what Manning did, but just throwing that out. TimTempleton (talk)  (cont)  21:10, 30 November 2018 (UTC)