Collegiate Sports And Collegiate Athletes

Lebron James and Freddy Adu are both young athletes and with millions in their pockets with a countless number of endorsement contracts. Whether it is high school athletes skipping college and discontinuing the development of their education for millions of dollars, or teenagers signing contracts with businesses for massive amounts of money, youth sports programs are changing rapidly. However, American high school athletes are not financially, physically, or mentally prepared to tackle and endure the pressures of professional sports.

I feel that college and professional sports share some of the same categories, college is just on a smaller scale than professional. Some of the expenses that both college and professional sports have in common are; travel, salaries, athletic scholarships (college), and facilities just to mention a few. The coaches’ salaries, especially football and basketball head coaches, has become one of the biggest issues in the last few years. These salaries create the largest expense acquired by most athletics programs. They average from $200,000 up. There should be a limitations set by the board as to how much they are paid. Same goes for professional sports. In my opinion, some professional players are over-paid. Although they are great at what

Many people believe that the college athletes are just like the professionals because they train and work just as hard as hard as the pros. First of all college students are working and training so hard because they want to make it to the major-leagues some day. “Students are not professional athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and

Are college athletics becoming the new face of professional sport leagues? What is the value of going to college when you have a $24-million-dollar contract on the table to go play for the Yankees, Celtics, or the Broncos? Is there any person that would give the opportunity, experience, or money to go play for a college on a scholarship? Because that amount of money is so insignificant, it will not pay for his/her whole tuition and have a chance at a career ending injury in result. These are the questions that loom around the mind of a student-athlete entering this stage in their career. However, there is a serious fight to having high school students attend college, earn a degree, and then enter a draft to a professional team. The disgrace with college sports makes us ask: should Division l athletes be paid over and beyond their scholarship?

Jolley, D. (2009). Academic Achievement Is Improving for College Athletes. In C. Watkins, Sports and Athletes (pp. 71-78). Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Rodeo is a very thrilling, exciting, and dangerous sport. During rodeos, one meets many new people, travels across the United States of America, and has the glorious Friday night lights shining down on them. During high school rodeo and college rodeo athletes must meet different levels of expectations; their performance because of scholarships or money, their coaches or parent’s expectations, and academic success. Expectations for college rodeo athletes are higher than the expectations for high school rodeo athletes. First off, high school contestants do not have to perform great to keep scholarships given to them. High school rodeo athletes are not on scholarship to rodeo. The money they use to rodeo comes from the contestant and his parents. Therefore, the contestant only

For these students, their academic pursuit is warded off by negatives such as being underprepared for college and not ready for the rigor of college academics (Reynolds, Lacey, Dawlah Fisher, and Kenyatta Cavil). A large portion of young black children are not going to be prepared for college life because of the athletic environment that they are placed in at a young age. College is commercialized in every aspect of the experience. Thus, for millions of black youth who aspire to becoming a professional athlete as a major goal, education matters only to the extent that maintaining eligibility to participate in sports in elementary and secondary schools through college is necessary in order to fulfill externally imposed requirements (Marvin, Dawkins). Today’s generation of a good grade is a 70 or higher. A child can carry that type of mind-set throughout their entire school experience until college approaches. The school systems are settling for mediocre and colleges are expecting exceptional. School, media, and surroundings of the young generation create this visual of these hopeful children getting into a college through athletics and mediocre academics.

Meaning 0.03% High School Men Basketball players make it a pro-league. As far as Women High School Basketball players 3.1% will make it to college, and only 1.0% from college to pro, meaning 0.02% Women High School Basketball players will make it to a pro-league. 5.8% High School football players will make it to college. Of that 5.8% 2.0% will make it pro. Meaning only 0.09% of High School Football players will make it to a pro-league. (Grant and Scholarship Resources.”)

As writer Jon Saraceno would say, “The NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] is a tax-exempt organization that operates as a monopoly, its rulebook denser than the New Testament” (Saraceno 38). He explains that the NCAA has various rules, and coaches and players do not know what is right or wrong. Others view that athletes are already receiving pay with scholarships. Athletes in higher revenue generating sports, comparable to basketball and football, are usually more likely to earn a full-ride scholarship. Full-ride scholarships allow an athlete to attend institutions at little to no cost. Without full-ride or partial scholarships, certain players could not afford to attend school. This is due to the poverty in areas where

Many problems going around about college sports and colleges athletes. Most colleges all over the nation allow the college to have sports but then there are some that don't. Being in a sport in college is just like basically having a job. You would need to be dedicated to this and not have much time for anything else. Practices can last anywhere from 4 to 6 hours a day just for one thing. Kind of crazy to think about something like this. Many people just simply don't have the time to do sports in college because they have a real job outside of school. This is different compared to high school because you would have time then and now you don't have much time for anything else at all. There are college athletes basically everywhere you go. Whether they play for universities or juts community colleges, it's all the same thing. The only big difference about this is the price differences. Universities are much more expensive then when playing for a community college so that's why people get scholarships.

A fairly large percentage of today’s youth participate in at least one sport. Some of these kids will learn that their interest in athletics is low, and either quit or give very little effort. However, many of these young ballers dream of one day donning the uniform of their local high school and making their community proud. This transition is not an easy one, and is not completed without dedication and hard work. Even though the sports themselves are the same, youth athletics differs from high school athletics in rule enforcement, opponent skill level, and commitment required.

College athletes are finally getting attention on the fact that they are not paid. I believe that whether or not it is college or pro sports they deserve a salary. These players put their heart and soul on the field and get nothing in return. In the articles “Athletes New Day” by Paul Marx and “College Athletes Should Not Be Paid” by Warren Hartenstine, the reasons for college athletes to be paid are very evident. No matter the case, if the students move on to pro sports or not after college, they should be entitled to some pay for their contributions. College athletes deserve to be compensated for their playtime in these sports, sales of products with their name on it, and even compensation for their injuries.

“After committing to the University of Oklahoma as a ninth-grader, Kyle Hardrick took the court in 2009. It was a dream come true for Hardrick. An injury to his knee put his future and his scholarship on hold. When Hardrick tried to resume his career, he was unable to obtain a medical hardship waiver, something he needed to regain a year of college eligibility. His family was stuck with tuition bills since his scholarship was not renewed. With those bills unpaid, he was unable to get his academic transcripts from Oklahoma to transfer to another school” (For College Scholarship Athletes, Injury Can Spell Financial Disaster). As scholarships are renewed every year, stories like Hardrick’s emerge across the country but can be avoided if the student-athlete had compensation to fall back on.

Despite the many stereotypes that are connected with being a student athlete, student athletes in general are held to much higher standards by their institutions. Before a prospective student athlete even enters college, they are made fully aware of the academic standings and requirements of the college they choose. Although the academic requirements vary from college to college, the standards are still held high for all student athletes. The transition into college can be exceptionally difficult especially for the

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a