College atheletes used to get a degree in bringing your pencil.

The line is a sardonic jab at the perceived academic leniency sometimes afforded to college athletes. By reducing a “degree” to merely “bringing your pencil,” Wax implies that the educational credential can become a formality rather than evidence of learning—especially when institutions prioritize athletic performance, revenue, or prestige. The humor depends on exaggeration: it suggests that minimal preparation is enough to pass, highlighting anxieties about grade inflation, compromised standards, and the tension between higher education’s ideals and its commercial or entertainment functions. Read more broadly, it critiques any system where status or utility eclipses merit.