Why is a degree important to a professional athlete? With the millions they make playing their sport that should keep them from having to do anything else after they retire. According to the NCAA that would be wrong (NCAA, 2016). The years a professional athlete varies based on health, talent, and contract. Shaq played nineteen years professional basketball (O’Neal & MacMullan, 2011). While Tim Tebow only played a few years in the NFL. Other athletes blow money on the lifestyle of the rich and famous by the time things ends for them they have blown all of their money and have nothing. That is why professional leagues should require a 4 – year undergraduate degree making it a requirement to play in the league because athletes need a job after sports end, it helps avoid bankruptcy, and the athletes with degrees are more successful. …show more content…
Kentucky University Men’s basketball teams are notorious for players not finishing school. Most of their players last a year or two before joining the professional teams. “NFL athletes graduated at a rate 10 to 30 percent points below the graduation rate of American college students at large, even though most players were on a full scholarship” (Bogan, 2016, Par 4). As a child these athletes dream of being a professional athlete and never really think of college as anything but a foot in the door to exposure for the professional teams. They take low level classes or general education courses just to stay eligible to play for their universities. Bo Jackson is another example of professional career coming to an end. He was injured and went back to school so he could find away to support himself after his professional days were over ( Tilus, 2013). The ending of career was unexpected and he was not prepared for the end of it. Money is never a consistence part of life nor, is
In the last ten years many young and talented high school basketball players have chosen to enter the NBA draft. These 17 and 18 year olds decide to skip college, and instead they choose to take a big risk and enter the NBA, hoping to become stars and earn millions of dollars. In many cases, these youngsters’ careers are a failure because they don’t turn out as talented as they thought to be. They end up spending only a few seasons in the NBA because they are not good enough to compete at that level. Many of them have to move on to doing other things, such as playing basketball overseas, doing everyday jobs, or going back to college to earn a degree.
College athletes have a goal that they pursue. The jump to the professional sports leagues is an accomplishment that most college athletes wanted to achieve. But most college athletes go to college and forego completing their senior year and don’t get a degree. In basketball most athletes are one and done. This means they go to college for only one year then enter the NBA draft. For the NFL players have to be out of high school for three years and necessarily don’t have to go to college.
In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young Black male basketball athletes, that the value of education appear to be less important in the development of these young men, “According to Sailes (1997), there is an over-representation of Black males in particular sports and an under-representation in other segments of American society. He provides the example of percentages of Black males competing in the NBA (77%), NFL (65%), MLB (15%), and MLS (16%) in comparison to the fact that fewer than 2% of doctors, lawyers, architects, college professors, or business executives are Black males.”, (Robinson, 2004:1). The idea of the attainment of a professional basketball player’s salary in the NBA, without even having to go to school for the time it takes to earn a degree is very appealing to some players. Those with a wealthy, or even upper-middle class upbringing may not view material assets as a priority. In the Black community, we have theorized that money and success play a more important role than education in most households. Although these two seem to go together, one resulting from the other, this does not apply in the sports world. Our research will examine the role that the family value system plays in influencing Black vs. White male athletes to turn professional, as opposed to obtaining a college degree before turning professional.
Association such as the NFL and NBA aren't filled with a lot of people. Barely anybody will actually make it that far, and some people practice for countless hours. "According to a poll from last year only 7.6% of highschool athletes play for college level sports, and only 1.7% go pro from college sports. And when you think about it people who play for college had to practice for such a large amount of time and there not even pro (Manfred)!" So why should the 55.5% of students who play ...
Major collegiate athletics programs are able to generate millions of dollars for their institutions, but are not able to show any evidence of successfully graduating their black male athletes that contribute to their success in generating those millions of dollars. These universities in turn, are failing these student athletes whom were promised that they would nurture them intellectually as well as athletically. A four year report published by the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education presents statistics that shows that the six major sports conferences in the NCAA (ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Pac 12) have weak graduation rates for male African American Student athletes. Jessica Anderson of the associated press wrote an article titled, Black Athletes' Graduation Rates Weak where she used evidence from the University of Pennsylvania’s study as well as information from The Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education to present findings that showed that only about, “50.2 percent of African-American male student-athletes graduated within six years and that 96.1 percent of the schools graduated African-American male student-athletes at rates lower than student-athletes overall” (Anderson). Yet, the evidence that African American male student athletes are struggling to graduate as compared to their white counterparts does not simply stop there. In fact, Shaun Harper the executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania reports that, “50.2 percent of black male athletes graduate within six years from colleges compared with 67 percent of athletes over all, 73 percent of undergraduates, and 56 percent of black undergraduate men” (Harper)....
When College athletes are recruited to college, most of the time they receive a four year scholarship to go to that university. Why not take advantage and use that four year scholarship to major in some profession. This ensures that if something were to happen down the road in the athletes professional career they would have a backup job. This would be the smartest idea because many athletes endure career ending injuries. With no education they have no job to fall back on, resulting in bankruptcy.
It is becoming more and more a trend for high school and underclassmen basketball players to forgo their college eligibility to enter the NBA draft. Most professional sports have restrictions to limit mentally and physically immature players from throwing away their college education to be unsuccessful in the professional ranks. In the National Football League, NCAA football players are not allowed to declare for the pro draft unless they have been in the school’s program for at least three years. In professional baseball and hockey, although they do draft players straight from high school, they have a minor league system set up. These minor leagues allow players the time to develop and still play against an excellent level of competition. This helps their growth process so that when they get into the real big leagues, they are somewhat ready to play and be a factor.
Throughout the country young men and women are losing their priority for an education. To attend a university should be a highly cherished privilege, and it should be an even greater honor to play athletics for the university. Therefore, the writer supports the decision that the “student” comes before “athlete” in student-athlete. Playing for pay should be considered a job for “professionals”. In the rulebook, the NCAA views college athletes as armatures. This statement sums it up best. When athletes go to college, not all of them go in with the mindset that athletics is going to be their future job....
College basketball has gone from amateur competition to multi-million dollar tournaments and will continue to get larger and larger. The student-athlete is no longer a student and has become more and more of an athlete. Admissions are loosened and deals are made in order to get the best basketball players in the land. Athletes who are not students are criticized when they leave for the pros even though they are probably doing the right thing by not perpetuating the myth of academics and athletics. College basketball has become a multi-million dollar industry whether schools will admit it or not and the student athlete is the one getting played.
I believe that college sports should be considered a profession. Athletes deserve to be paid for their work. College athletics are a critical part of America’s culture and economy. At the present time, student-athletes are considered amateurs. College is a stepping-stone to the professional leagues. The NCAA is exploiting the student- athlete. Big-time schools are running a national entertainment business that controls the compensation rate of the players like a monopoly (Byers 1).
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...
Emil Zatopek once said “An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.” This quote applies to every college athlete. The quote means that an athlete may not be getting paid in college, but if they put in the hard work and dedication they can make it to the big leagues. College football is the second most watched sport in America. And the athletes playing the game do not even get paid a penny to play the game. In the sports world. this has been talked about for an extremely long time. College athletes put their body on the line for injury. They put their grades in on the line because of the hours they put on the court, or field (Keolanui). They also sell their apparel at the game and at stores and they get no money at all (Keolanui).
The schools and the league are not the only ones hurt, by leaving school early hoping to make the big bucks the players hurt themselves. In the world that we live in today, if you do not have a college degree, opportunities are limited. Look at the statistics, 60 players are drafted each year, and there are only 360 roster spots in the entire NBA. The chances that each player drafted will make the team is almost an impossibility. Some people go back to school and try to finish their degrees, but most do not because once you give up your eligibility, you cannot get it back, which means most of them cannot afford to go back to school.
There is never enough of anything in the life of a college student. there is never enough time to study, or enough food, or enough money, or enough time to sleep. But, if that student becomes a college athlete then all of the “or’s” change to “and’s”. Even though there are many struggles of a college athlete they are not going away. As the youth of America watches their older counterparts excel in many college sports, a dream to become an athlete at the collegiate level is sparked. This dream is fueled through high school sports and then disseminated by high school counselors. Counselors who are quick to remind that sports do not bring home a paycheck. Neverless, this dream of college sports thrives and is present in the mind of every high
Herbet D. Simans, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington focuses their argument on academic motivation of student athletes and what drives them to want to succeed in the classroom as well as on the court or field. Although Flynn also focuses on academic motivation of student athletes, he also discusses how colleges tend to spend more money on sports related necessities for the students instead of towards their education. Flynn’s argument displays how colleges are basically a business...