Skipping Class at Georgia? It's on Your Dime ...

A message was sent to University of Georgia athletes this semester: if you skip class, you're gonna pay. But it's not the old-fashioned way of paying, like simply finding themselves in the coach's proverbial doghouse or being subjected to early-morning run sessions. UGA athletes have to pay for missing class, literally. According to an AP article and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, current Dawgs are subject to suspensions of 10% of their season for each class skipped over two and fines of $10 for each tutoring session missed. "If we truly believe in academics, these policies aren't so radical," says Georgia AD Damon Evans.

In the effort of full disclosure, let me say now that had I been charged $10 for each skipped class when I was in college, I would have needed a scholarship to cover the tab.

However, the policy seems to be working in Athens:

The number of times student-athletes missed tutoring and other academic sessions dropped by 90 percent from 421 over a three-week period in September to 46 over a three-week period in January.

In the same time periods, the number of times students missed class dropped by almost 80 percent, from 82 no-shows in September to 19 in January.

Ted White, Georgia's director of academic services, says no student-athletes have drawn suspensions and only a few have drawn the $10 fines.

Evans said he believes Georgia can remain competitive in athletics while demanding higher academic standards.

To be fair, I'm sure fewer athletes skip class/tutoring in January in part because football players aren't having to practice. And should a football player be fined ten bucks, he'd probably have an easier time paying up than, say, a member of the crew team (wink, wink). But even with that being said, I think these measures are a good idea in a conference that has been maligned even recently for being too academically lax and recruiting kids who aren't going to succeed in school for the sake of recruiting rankings. If nothing else, it gives the appearance of keeping the "student" in student-athlete.