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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1989)
The Battalion bISPORTS 11 l I Thursday, October 19,1989 Tom Kehoe Sports Editor 845-2688 dents i; ill han; >o rati, I ho the ‘ospiu;. | beer t f abo;;: I J eed If. | ia t neat rewen I sice- iaid. Shint aid Dt I lie hiil- iary." 'of»I ipoenl | town. ex- let- ex-1| have they itby adge an- deni rum dto ents lave l be ome he e,or s I een the | vho olic in- [-it, lest 'em vo. nts H no No. 13 UFA drops Lady Ags in thriller By Clay Rasmussen Of The Battalion Staff Nobody in the Southwest Confer ence ever would have thought that the 8-8 Texas A&M women’s volley ball team could stay close to the Uni versity of Texas Arlington, the Southland Conference leaders. After all, the Mavericks are ranked 13th in the nation. But, stay close A&M did, losing a heartbreaker Wednesday to UTA in five matches in G. Rollie White Col iseum. Texas A&M came up just a few points short from sweeping the Mav ericks before dropping the final two games to UTA in their loss. “If we hadn’t let down in that second ball game, we would have beaten them in three,” A&M coach A1 Givens said. “We got down 8-2 and clawed our way back to make them earn that game.” Instead of sweeping UTA, the Lady Ags lost the match 10-15, 15- 12, 14-16, 15-8, 15-4. A&M Coach A1 Givens credited the loss to a lack of intensity. “If we had been playing with that kind of intensity throughout the year, we wouldn’t be 8-9,” Givens said. “I think if we could have played on that level on a daily basis, we’d be great.” The Lady Ags came out in the first game and put up eight straight points to the Mavericks one. UTA came back and chipped away at A&M’s lead, scoring three points near the end of the game, but the Lady Aggies held and won 15- 10. In the second game, the two teams reversed, with the Mavericks scoring a string of four points for every point the Lady Ags scored. Down 8- 2, A&M fought back to close the score to 14-12 before finally drop ping the final point. The Lady Ags were forced to See Volleyball/Page 13 Baylor’s Francis knows a lot, including Aggies By Alan Lehmann Of The Battalion Staff photo by Jay Janner A&M’s Amy Cumings (6) spikes the ball over UTA’s Chris Rudiger in Wednesday night’s loss. A&M fell to 8-9. James Francis knows football. James knows basketball. James knows postseason play. But, James also knows that he can’t jala^ pro football and pro basket- The Baylor senior, a physical education major from LaMarque, is one of the top-rated linebackers in the nation. But he faced a tough decision last year. In an age when few athletes are good enough to play one varsity college sport, Francis played both football and basketball for Bay lor. However, Francis thought he needed to devote more effort to football, so he gave up basketball to concentrate on football. The decision wasn’t an easy one to make for Francis, because he had picked Baylor partially for basketball, and had been the sixth man on the Baylor squad. “At Baylor, I played basketball from the start. I played two year- s,and it was a good experience.” Although Francis is more highly regarded as a football Texas A&M at Baylor Site: Floyd Casey Stadium <48,500 cap.) Kickoff: 1 p.m. Ranking: A&M (23rd), Baylor <-) TV/Radio: The game will not be televised; KTAM (AM 1240) player, he has logged more post season time on the court than on the field. He played on the Baylor basketball teams that went to the National Invitational Tourna ment in 1986 and the NCAA Tournament in 1988. He has set a torrid tackling See Francis/Page 13 J bejuJ ousantl emem [ > Parll can il ie, the: | oney,' cinnaiil )C The other side of the issue: why should we pay student athletes? As far back as Teddy Roosevelt’s administration, issues have been debated concerning problems in collegiate athletics. Professionalism was a problem in the forefront and it’s resurfacing today. The issue: Should college athletes be paid? Answer: No. How heartless, you say. Don’t I realize that athletes put in hours and hours a week to attend practices, travel and compete in their contests? They don’t have time to hold down a job of any sort. It’s unfair that they aren’t allowed a little spending money to enjoy themselves with their freinds. Oh sure, they’re given scholarships, room and board and books, but they’re being taken advantage of. The so-called “revenue sports”, football and basketball, Tom Kehoe Sports Editor bring in millions of dollars. The athletes see none of it. So what. This isn’t the case at all schools. I mean, if Rice and Northwestern are in it just for the money they ought to give it up. No lucrative cable TV contracts there. Let’s look at what athletes do get. As far as a college education goes, A&M is relatively cheap. If you live in the dorm, are on meal plan and take a normal load of classes, it’s going to cost about $4,000 a year. At the other end of the spectrum are schools like Notre Dame and the University of Southern Calfornia. They’re going to pinch you for about $ 16,000 a year for similar things you would be paying for at A&M. So one could reasonably conclude that if you’re on a football scholarship at one of these institutions, you are being “paid” up to $16,000 a year. All right, I’ll take it! An argument I’ve seen recently in The Battalion and Sports Illustrated uses, as an example, someone who works at the student newspaper and gets paid for it. What is the connection between a newspaper and a football team? I know it sound like an bad Tonight Show joke. And the answer is the joke. There is no connection. Sure I get paid to do my work here at The Battalion. Whoopee. It’s not anything that will motivate me to look into opening a bank account in the Bahamas. And it sure isn’t anything close to being a full scholarship. And let’s face it, we’re talking about the difference between doing a job and playing a game. The issue of athletes being taken advantge of: It does happen. Unfortunately, many young men and women pass through their years of eligiblity and don’t extract the education they’re allegedly in school to get. Two hundred dollars a month isn’t going to change that. If it would, I might feel differently. What $200 a month could change is how many schools could afford to retain not just revenue sports, but athletic programs in general. Think about it. Many schools, especially the small private types, are just squeaking by to pay the bills. To add to their tab a stipend that will be given to each athlete will cause them to cancel thier programs. No athletic programs means no scholarships which means no educations for those who might not otherwise be able to afford it. That makes practicing all the time and not having any beer money seem a whole lot less important. How’re you going to do it? Reeling from revisions! Angling for A s! m ■' v . ^ pp r; v\1plt Swampect by sociology! PS/2 it! Close a deal on an IBM PS/2 before the semester closes in on you. Before you find yourself in deep water this semester, get an IBM Personal System/2.® Choose from five different packages of hard ware and software—all at special low student prices. Each system comes with easy-to-use software loaded and ready to go! Whats more, when you buy your PS/2,® you can get PRODIGY,® the shopping, information and enter tainment computer service, at less than half the retail price. And for a limited time, you can get special savings on your choice of three IBM Proprinter™ models? Don’t miss the boat. Come in today. 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