Should Colleges Worry About Lower Test Scores?

Two points regarding Bob Oates’ “The Heartless Bunch” in Sunday’s Times:

First, rather than targeting universities for criticism, the real targets should be the NFL and the NBA. Major league baseball and the NHL have well-organized minor league systems that allow an option to those who have little university aptitude or interest. They can learn their profession and try to prove their talent while getting paid to do so.

The NFL and the NBA are on a cost-free gravy train. They should be made to spend money on leagues that provide an option to an athlete and reduce the abuse of the university athletic programs.

Second, the NCAA-required SAT and ACT scores are so pathetically low, it is hard to see how a person could be functional in high school, much less college. Why should a university be pressured into accepting students who have only a fraction of the academic qualifications of the general student body?

KENNETH J. LISS

Manhattan Beach

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It might be described as institutionalizing the dumbing down of American education standards in the name of athletics. As reported in the Sunday Times, it is an organized assault on the notion that a standardized method be used for determining who is qualified to pursue a higher education.

Even worse, don’t even consider the notion that the present education testing standards should be raised so that students, including talented athletes, entering college will indeed be prepared to become college educated.

JOHN M. FRETER

Yucca Valley