Essay On College Sports

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

Collegiate sports have turned into a billion dollar industry and are probably just as popular, if not more popular than professional sports. College athletes put their bodies on the line to play a sport they love, many with hopes and dreams to one day make it to the professional leagues. Athletic facilities are the major money makers for all universities. Colleges bring in billions of dollars in revenue annually, yet athletes do not get paid. Some fans believe athletes should not get paid due to their sports level being “amateurish.”; however, this is far from the truth. There is much more to being a college athlete than just practicing and playing games. These student-athletes must practice, weight lift, go to meetings, travel, go to tutoring and study groups, all the while maintaining sufficient grades. This is very tedious work and is very time consuming. College athletes have a high standard to live up to (Frederick Web; Huma Web; Patterson Web ).

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

Academic success is important for both high school and college athletes. To be eligible to participate, athletes must maintain a certain GPA. Student athletes that don’t make school a priority, not only miss out on playing time, but also fail to prepare themselves for the next step in their life. For high school athletes, that means prepare for college while for college athlete, it means preparing to enter the workforce. Although, both high school and

College scholarships, the attraction of every devoted sports player out there. Earning scholarships brings players together not only to step up their game, but to be enthusiastic about exceeding their academic goals. Colleges put down an amount of money to attract top athletes from high schools all over their state. Athletic meaning all sports, like golf, fencing, and water polo. Tons of schools and families support the aid colleges grant in their athletic scholarship programs, while others are against it, saying that it has too few people who are accepted and that it takes away money that everyone else has to pay for their classes. They don’t realize that players will be encouraged to do great academically, so that they may do great

Collegiate athletics is a multibillion dollar business. Competition across basketball, football, and other popular sports generate just as much money as they do excitement and entertainment to sports fans and the casual viewer. The driving force behind this behemoth are the athletes that don the uniform of the competing universities. These athletes, the most of which are black, dedicated time synonymous to working a full time job on top of being student in order to serve this money machine. What is so damning about this system then? The truth is that the student-athletes do not see a penny of the millions they earn for their schools. On top of that, they are stretched beyond reasonable means in order to serve their athletic program. In return, they are compensated with scholarships to attend the college. However, what might seem like a coveted opportunity is not what it seems.

There has been a lot of controversy about how the athletes we award full scholarships to can’t finish school. People still think they are “dumb jocks” that only know how to throw a ball. They only see the athletes that do fail academically and not the ones that

Literature surrounding athletic participation and its impact on the college experience is well documented (LaForge & Hodge, 2011). Many scholars purport that athletic participation enhances the academic experience, while others argue that it creates a divide between colleges’ missions and student-athletes lived campus experiences. To support this claim, Lawrence, Henedricks & Ott (2007) found in their study that nearly one-third of faculty who responded to their survey indicated that they believed that academic standards are lowered to achieve success in the sports of football and basketball. One question that is often posed by

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

The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”

For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances

An article written by Robert “Scoop” Jackson states, athletes are aware of the fact that they will not receive compensation for their efforts. When a top athlete signs a letter of intent for a university he or she is informed that they are students first and athletes second. The Student Athlete is a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which she or he is enrolled. Many argue that paying athletes would erode a sense of pride shared by alumni and the student body of colleges and universities. According to Yankah, schools that have large attendance numbers at games are not visited and supported by spectators and students because people feel like they have the fastest or strongest person on the team, but more so students and alumni attend because they know the athletes on the field walk the same hallways as regular students, and they sweat the same midterms that regular students take. People revel in the excellence to their association or social groups. Paying athletes would tarnish that

Rebecca Lobo once said“Athletes who take to the classroom naturally or are encouraged to focus on grades should be able to do well in the classroom. I believe the reason you go to college is to get your degree. It's not a minor league or an audition for the pros.” many athletes should read these and apply it to their life because college isn't about trying to play in the pros if you're an athlete sure you can have a dream, but you need to also get a degree that should be the main focus not getting a tryout or an audition for the pros. Every year around one hundred seventy-seven thousand athletic scholarships is given out to those that stood out in their sport, whether it was basketball, football, or even baseball. The kids receiving these scholarships are given a free

“A partner from the St Louis - based firm Bryan Cave says that athletes go to college to get a degree. Some just end up playing sports.” (Cooper et al.1). Many people tend to think that college is all about sports. Attending college is a privilege. (Cooper et al.1) there fore, athletes are already being rewarded by attending college.

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