Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is in the news once again. The former professional wrestler turned state governor said in an interview that college athletes shouldn't have to attend classes. Following a story published revealing academic fraud by athletes at the University of Minnesota, Ventura asked, "Why not let kids go to college and just be athletes while they're there? No classes." According to Ventura this will eliminate cheating, because colleges should accept that some students were never actually meant to study."

If they were never meant to study, (a) what are they doing in college, and (b) why are we calling them students? Let's get this straight� In addition to cutting funding for the arts in his state, Governor Ventura wants to eliminate any incentive to study, even among athletes not inclined to cheat. The taxpayers of Minnesota will continue to cover the "college" expenses of "students" receiving full sports "scholarships" in order to insure that a sufficient number of representatives of the next generation will be unemployable after the age of 35 (and this is assuming that they get lucky and graduate to a more traditional professional sports career)?