Kentucky's John Calipari

My dad and I have disagreed on the term “student-athlete” for as long as I can remember.

They should be called “athletic students”, he argued, because they were students at the end of the day. I argued “student-athlete” was the more apt term because they were students first.

After watching Kentucky win the NCAA men’s basketball championship Monday night, I am ready to retire my argument. Not because I think he is right. I no longer believe the word student should be used when describing college athletes.

Kentucky coach John Calipari, as much as I dislike him, has done us all a favor. He has pulled back the curtain on the sham that is college sports during his two decades as a college coach at UMASS, Memphis, and Kentucky. We are not watching amateurs at the highest levels of NCAA sports nor have we been for a long time.
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