(OK: Here's one of my "extended tales"--THIS one a personal testimony to what a "full-ride" requires OF you, what it CAN be "worth", provided the player graduates...)
Even with tutors (and I was one as an undergrad--and even in THOSE Dickey-then-Pell-days--when you "heard" of people accepting cash, taking exams for players, and while I didn't DO that but DID get to be known as one who would do everything to get them to a "pass", WITHOUT cheating), lame "gut-classes", and profs who were "willing to get with the program", it was no small thing to actually graduate from UF...Good thing, too, 'cause a University of Florida degree has well-benefitted from the various efforts of Presidents, Regents and so on thru' the years to ensure that our alma mater was seen and thought of as, well, if not quite "the Harvard of the South" they aspire it to be (though, on a STATE-level, it IS that--as far as producing the greatest number of Florida's powerful leaders, "captains-of-industry" and elected representatives of any school in the state, for example through the "Florida Blue Key" Fraternal Society), certainly well-known and prestigious, for several proud reasons--and not ONLY because of our Football Team. A time or two my academic honors have turned out to come in handy after all.
For eg., some years after graduation, I found myself on the top floor of a stylish new building, at the head of a long oval table surrounded by large windows overlooking Sunset Blvd, as my UF transcripts were being handed out and studied by a dozen-and-a-half recognizable names and faces of Hollywood directors and producers, who happened that year to make up the "Interview Committee", whose approval and recommendation one needed in order to enter the Director's Guild (DGA). Voluntary participation normally rendering a group 1/3 that size, a writers' strike had suspended all productions for some time, leaving a LOT of "bored big-wigs". For possibly the one and only (but no less life-changing) times in my life, I got to witness those UF transcripts' effect on prospective employers, muttering to each other things like "Good school", "Hard working...", and (looking up for a moment--to me--things like) "Man, you really did well--and at a major University..."--but their attitudes became noticeably distant, more argumentative after that.
Under tense scrutiny with so much at stake, I relaxed. As I saw it then, in considering, and in probably ultimately passing me OVER, they flattered THEMSELVES that they were "smarter, superior"--one woman, in dissent of my worthiness, even made a DISPARAGING remark concerning UF and the South. From that point forward I sat back in my chair and began to have fun with it. I had made it THAT far, and I was determined to take it all in, "give as good as I got". The last third of that maybe 45 minute interview was a strange scene of these "famous people", whom I'd always aspired to work among and with, peppering me with "what-if scenarios", then cutting-in on my answers with further complications, asking what I'd do THEN, and so on--until eventually somehow I was slouched back with my tie by-then loosened, fielding their Q's and coming up with quick come-backs, had most of them laughing, then the interview was over...I stood, my eyes swept the long table: I thanked them all and said something quickly forgotten except that it left them smiling, turned and walked out the door, my head spinning--and certain that, after everything, I HADN'T "made it", and it was OK! My young wife waiting in the lobby, later interviewees waiting there as well, her eyes met mine as the door swung slowly closed behind me--and I burst out laughing, shook my head and said, "Well, that's over--back to the real world!" I was sure that was the end of it.
Six weeks later a letter arrived from the DGA: Sure "just a formality" as she handed it to me, I opened it--and found I'd been accepted. At the time, it was like winning the lottery--I knew how that felt, anyway.
My point here? Some time later, I worked with someone who'd been there that day (but not sure if he remembered ME). There came a point with a problem, I proposed a rather off-the-wall solution, and as we split up to carry it out, he said to me quietly, "You know, that's why I supported you for all this back then--I figured you had gotten the most you could out of a challenging environment at a top school, were proud of your work there, and would bring that same hard work and pride to any OTHER challenge that faced you--I'm a Trojan, and I HATED when you shocked and beat us, but that's what you Gators DO, isn't it? Deal with adversity and keep on coming..." You see, until that moment, so distracted, I'd forgotten my last line before I turned and walked out the door that day: "Thank you all, and GO GATORS!"
...So don't EVER tell me that your UF degree is ANY kind of "lightweight" or even "worthless joke of a" degree. Those who manage to train for and play FOOTBALL (or ANY scholarship sport at that level, Btw) full-time a large portion of the time they are there, and still manage to graduate, HOWEVER they manage it, for THEM I have only the utmost respect.
