Two Investigations Undermine Student-Athlete Image

RALEIGH — It’s an ages-old question, one as old as the athletic scholarship itself: Are college athletes on scholarship primarily students? Or are they more like hired mercenaries, brought in to do a specific job, and students second — or perhaps not at all? Two recent newspaper investigations indicate that, in the major revenue-producing sports of men’s basketball and football, the classroom is not the players’ strong suit.