Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota chose to skip a potential top-10 NFL Draft selection in order to return for his final year of college football eligibility. His decision made the Ducks the instant Pac-12 favorite and a potential Playoff team.
Especially since his fall academic workload leaves plenty of room for work that will directly impact his chosen career path:
Oregon QB Marcus Mariota will be pretty focused on football this fall. His final 2 courses for credit this fall? Golf & yoga.
— Ted Miller (@TedMillerRK) July 26, 2014
As you can imagine, the Internet took that really well ...
... complete with references to the ballroom dancing class USC quarterback Matt Leinart took when he decided to come back for his senior season.
While we'll rarely frown on sports jokes being made on the internet, there's no reason for actual serious concerns here. For one thing, Mariota has already graduated is "a couple credits" shy of graduating. He's done with his major's courses and is now taking electives.
Mariota graduating makes him eligible for the @seniorbowl #NFL RT @McNamaraUO Cap, gown and shoe game ✔️✔️✔️ #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/mPw9GPsEbB
— Patrick Woo (@P_Woo) June 16, 2014
Which means this isn't about a player on the way out taking the bare minimum just to stay eligible.
FACT: If you complete your degree requirements in 3 yrs, you can then take whatever classes you want #GoDucks
— Andy McNamara (@McNamaraUO) July 28, 2014
For another, his education and his career are his business, not ours. Every school offers athletics courses. You probably should've taken one. And every school takes advantage of academic loopholes for football players, though this really doesn't even count as that.
It's not a stretch to say that lean course schedule could improve his future earnings, which is about as close as we can get to describing the whole point of going to college. Yoga's a relevant interest for an athlete with an injury history, and as South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier shows, golf is good for you too.
Besides, if we're being asked to believe that college football scholarships are as good as salaries, shouldn't we celebrate a player taking a lighter course load, and therefore a smaller salary, for the good of his team?