A very controversial issue in college athletics today is whether student athlete's academic goals or athletic events should be placed in higher importance. In our society today, many people people tend to think of highly renowned college athletes as athletes that dedicate all their time to the sport that they play. What many people tend to forget is that these college athletes have as large a responsibility in the classroom as they do playing football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, track and field, or whatever sport it is that they play. These student athletes are required to practice for many hours each week in addition to having to complete hours of homework and research papers that they may have. Some people may think that being a collegiate athlete would be a fun and easy task but however, they are wrong. Regular college students receive enough homework and papers to do. Imagine having to complete all of the homework that all non- student athletes have to complete in addition to the time consuming dedication to a sports team. This is the stressful and challenging life of a collegiate student athlete.
It is very challenging for student athletes to be able to manage their time between academics and athletics. It can also be difficult for colleges to help their students balance their time between these two very time requiring activities. Colleges and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, want their students athletes to succeed in the classroom, but they also need student athletes to practice and compete in athletic events because they profit off of their success on the field.
Due to the immense popularity of college athletics and the large profits that colleges receive from these sports, it...
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...es are poor should not be able to play their sport. The NCAA understands this and implemented a rule that states student athletes must maintain a 2.3 grade point average or they will not be eligible for athletics. This is a good start on the path to helping student athletes learn to prioritize academic over athletics. However, in the future the NCAA could raise the minimum required grade point average to a 2.5 or even higher. Some colleges in our country need to do a better job of enforcing these rules. There have been cases reported in which colleges kept their student athletes eligible even when they were struggling academically. This is not acceptable and colleges should not hold back from punishing student athletes who aren’t succeeding in their academics.
It is also very difficult for student athletes to manage their time between their athletics and academics.
Imagine a business that brings in $60 million each year ,and the people fueling that industry receive none of the revenue(Wieberg). These same people work 40 hours in their sport every week, these “people” are college athletes. The NCAA, the governing body for major college sports, is the industry doing this to college athletes(Edelman). This is an issue of exploitation and control by large institutions over primarily poor people, the NCAA is guiding them in directions to make money for everybody while doing everything possible to keep the players out of the money. College Athletes deserve profit because they bring in large revenue into their program, the NCAA, and they invest tons of time into their sport.
Everyone has experienced some type of stress in their life. Whether it has been from work, school, or troubles at home, stress is stress. If anyone had played sports in high school, you know the challenge of balancing school and sports. Imagine that stress, then multiply it exponentially. Everyone knows that college is a much more rigorous version of high school. The only reason some athletes made it to college is due to scholarships for their performance on the field. If they don’t perform well on the field, that scholarship might get cut. This makes practicing the athletes main priority. However, college athletes have to concentrate on their grades so they don’t drop out of college. These athletes know they may not make it to the pro’s, so they know they have to have a back up plan. This back up plan is called a college degree. So college athletes have to concentrate both on sports and classes. Sounds kind of challenging. This is why I believe student athletes should be allowed to miss classes occasionally due to their sport. Athletes are under much more stress, are required to attend practices and classes, and complete their homework. This is simply impossible to do, at least for a human. I believe that this is an important topic because it affects all college athletes.
...make time to study, be involved in college campus activities, work part-time and participate in athletics in order to succeed. Not having to deal with the pressures and status of being a paid professional will allow the student-athlete to focus more on the sport than on all the legalities of the sport. Leaning to set goals and achieve them as a student-athlete will help them become a well rounded individual.
Another restraint to college athletes working is a time restraint. College athletes have very busy schedules they follow and when finished with their schedules they are left with very little free time. Student athletes are required to take a minimum of twelve credit hours to start the semester and required to pass at least nine credit hours by the end of the semester. With this standard having to be met, the athletes are spending hours studying and attending class. Besides from studying and attending class the athletes then have to go to practice. Going to practice and participating takes up about four to seven hours of the athlete’s day. After all of this is completed, the athletes are left with only a couple of hours for them to enjoy time with their friends or even to just relax and watch a movie. But, because these athletes are college students and do not receive any money for their commitments they are supposed to squeeze time in for work in. If athletes apply for a job they are limited to only a couple of hours a day to work. Also a large number of jobs request their employees to be available on the weekends.
Playing a sport in college is equivalent to working a full-time job (Thomas). There are rules that allow major-college football coaches to only demand twenty hours of the players time each week (Wieberg). However, studies show that those athletes are doubling those hours per week during the season (Wieberg). Other sports are putting in the equivalent of a full time work week (Wieberg). Some NCAA officials are concerned with the amount of time spent stating that beyond forty hours is inhumane (Wieberg). Most of the athletes compete and do whatever it takes to succeed, so they enjoy spending countless hours on sports (Wieberg). Many athletes even have struggles in the classroom because they do not have enough time to study. Student-athletes at top Division I schools think of themselves as athletes more than students (Wieberg). Less than one percent of college athletes actually make it professionally (Wieberg). That means these kids should focus more on their education than on athletics. In reality, these official...
Every young boy dreams of beinging the next Lebron James, Tom Brady, Micheal Jordan, Derek Jeter, and list goes on. The reality of it all is not many young boys ever reach that dream. Academics seem to be the kryptonite of these supermen. While some student athletes believe a college education is irreavlent there are some student athletes who say a college education is reavlent. Academics are meant to be challenging. Regardless, if you are a athlete or a non athlete. Some students will take remedial classes or electives from a certain major to remain eligible. I am against any colleigate athelte that chooses to take rememdial classes and electives to remain eligble to play. Many people argue I am crazy for encouraging student athelets to sign up for harder classes. The reply is simple, “are we helping or are we hurting them in the long run?” Academics are the foundation of any great success. Futhermore, the ones to blame are parents, teachers, and NCAA.
Saffici, Chirstopher and Robert Pellegrino. "Intercollegiate Athletics vs. Academics: The Student-Athlete or the Athelte-Student." The Sport Journal 15.1 (2012): 6. online.
Often in college, athletes will do just enough to get by and not care about what their academic performance means. Unfortunately, especially in some larger schools, preferential treatment for athletes does exist among the faculty. This also gives athletes the advantage at the time, but hurts them in the long run.
The average division 1 football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to their sport giving them 3.3 hours more than a typical American work week. With those statistics, I think it’s safe to say that being a collegiate athlete requires more than a full time job. Trying to keep up with homework and attendance in class poses many challenges especially when the NCAA requires students to miss class for championship games, televised games, or other events that bring in revenue for the school. ...
College athletics is a billion dollar industry and has been for a long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. It’s simple: bigger, faster, stronger athletes will generate more money. College Universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair to the players that they get a cut. College athletes should get paid based on the university’s revenue, apparel sales, and lack of spending money.
Student athletes live very busy lives. A typical school day runs from 8:00-2:30, add in a two- hour practice or game, score a part time job, dive into some family time, a grand slam of homework and catch a little bit of sleep. Students are more stressed due to the many activities they are a part of. This issue affects a lot of people not only in this school district, but most other high schools throughout the country. All student athletes exercise more than other children who are not involved in an extracurricular sport. In school athletics, the players are called “student athletes” meaning that school activities come first. There are strict rules for student athletes, not only on the field but in the classroom as well. In physical education
Some student athletes say they do not have enough time to make it to class. According to many that have opinions from both sides of the issue have come up with a possible solution. They said it depends on the person if they want to push to receive an education or not. There are some who have been able to do both. Even though student athletes do not have time to attend classes they need to get an education to have something to fall back on if sports does not work out, and they need to have a certain GPA to be eligible to play.
Many people believe that College athletes have it easy, and who wouldn’t think that? A free education, free living; getting to travel and play the sport that many people would love to still be able to. Student athletes also get to pick classes earlier than a regular student and have the ability to be excused from classes to go to games and special events. The life of a student athlete sounds like an enticing thing for many people; especially those who are not student athletes on scholarships or walk-ons to a college team. The rising cost of attending college has made the younger athletic population work just as hard to receive a scholarship to play a sport, because they may come from poverty where they can’t otherwise afford to attend school, which is beneficial to them. Understand, that college is a place where academics comes first, and everything else is second; this includes athletics. But are these athletes treated fairly and given all the right things they need to succeed in life, let alone college?
For decades there has been a debate on student athletes and their drive to succeed in the classroom. From the very beginning of organized college level athletics, the goal to want to succeed in athletics has forced students to put academics to the back burner. In spite of the goal to want to succeed over a hundred years of attempts to check limits of intercollegiate athletic programs on colleges' academic standards still seems to struggle to this day. This brings to surface one of the most asked questions in sports, “What effect does college sports have on academics and economics?” Herbert D. Simons, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington, authors of “Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete” researched the topic on whether athletics and academics benefit each other. Bryan Flynn, the author of “College Sports vs. Academics” poses the question “Should institutions of higher learning continue to involve themselves in athletic programs that often turn out to be virtual arms races for recruiting talented players who bring big money and prestige, but put academics to the back burner?” Although both authors agree that sports have an impact on an athlete’s academics, the focus of their argument differs.
The life of a college student is hard to begin with. The life of a college student athlete re-writes the definition of hard. The students are practically employees of the school. Their college life is planned out for them with little room for compromise. Offseason lifting, practice, film study, In season games, media is just a sample of their daily activities, and they still have time to study for the same exact tests that a normal