How Do School Sports Affect Academics?

Multiple studies have shown that college athletes do not perform as well in the classroom as their nonathletic peers. For example, according to Michael Maloney in the article An Examination of the Role that Intercollegiate Athletic Participation Plays in Academic Achievement, he states that “SAT scores of athletes are, on average, 150 points below non- athletes. Similarly, athletes come to college with inferior high school preparation in academics. Their high school rank is 20 percentage points below nonathletes.”

Many people are debating whether or not school sports should be removed due to the critical consequences they are having on young athletes academic, and social lives. Studies have proven that cutting sports from schools can improve students grades in a plethora of ways. Therefore, school sports should be taken away to prevent students from failing classes, save districts money, and allow children the study time they need.

Schools should get rid of sports. Although many people think that sports are relaxing and stress relieving; numerous studies say that for sport players in particular, the lack of time to do work and sleep is crushing them socially, physically, and academically. Therefore, districts should get rid of after school sports because the cost is extreme, this would aid students academically, and they are a

The impact of preserving sports in high schools has been surrounded by much controversy as people suspect that it is the reason behind the poor academic achievement of students. Opponents to high school sports feel that allowing athletics to be a part of schools sidetracks the focus of the student body, which goes completely against the main purpose of schools. Indeed, this assertion is completely true and based upon plentiful evidence. High school sports undoubtedly come at the expense of student academic achievement since they divert the attention of students away from academics and they come with far too many financial costs, both of which incur negative impacts on the academics within a school. The bottomline is that sports are harming the education of students, so a school must make the decision between composing quality sports teams or providing high level academics; both of these choices simply cannot occur simultaneously.

Recently American test scores have been down but the first thing people blame for this epidemic is sports. Instead of looking at the infrastructure of our school system. Sports are ingrade in American culture and how we life so to just take them away would be dractace. Sports should stay in schools because the keep kids out of trouble, help kids get better grades, and it helps them later on in their life.

Everyone knows academics are the main point of school, but athletics have begun to take over and draw away from that focus. Many individuals believe school sports are more important than ever; however, cost is excessive and players often think about upcoming games or matches, detracting attention from homework. Therefore, districts should eliminate after-school sports because they cost tremendous amounts of money, cause academic failure, and are a major distraction.

Moreover, college athletes have shown a poor academic success rate in past few years, in brief. Their academic performances were significantly low due to the distraction caused by athletic programs. Athletics are not only a distraction for athletes, but also for institutions which are holding these athletic programs. “The low graduation rates among athletics, particularly in sports like football and basketball, are alarming, although there is strong evidence that this problem is endemic to the entire academic enterprise” (“College”). Average outcome GPA of an athlete is way lower than that of a normal student in general. Missing classes regularly, missing assignments, and missing exams have been the reasons for these poor academic performance rates. Daily practices and tournaments are the reason for them to miss their academics. Another side of this argument is that athletes are given unfair advantages in academics unlike other students. They were given excessive grade changes and extra points to maintain their athletic eligibility. This situation degrades the quality of academic programs and it debases

In most of the USA, schools would offer a variety of sports programs to their students in order for them to have a chance at becoming an athlete and competing against other schools. On the other hand, there are schools in various other countries that do not give their students any opportunities for school athletics. In a nourishing school environment, we all know that academics and in-class abilities count first when it comes to learning. In this world we live in people argue that after school sports might be the reason for poor academic performances and dropout rates in sports-featured schools.

High school sports make student athletes strive for better success in their education. Sure some Schools have a minimum G.P.A requirement of 2.0, and to get that all your classes have to be “C” or better. Well that’s better than letting them have a 1.0 and letting them play. It makes them have something worth studying for, For example my friend Bryan Garcia does not like school or work but he is always looking for ways to make his grades better so that he may play with the John F. Kennedy soccer team. Also not all the states in the United States of America have a G.P.A requirement to play in a sport activity, twelve out of the fifty states in the USA require a G.P.A to play."A High School Athlete 's GPA Vs. Average High School Student 's GPA." Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.”Sports participation is associated with higher GPAs, lower dropout rates and stronger commitments to school compared to the average,non-athlete high school student”. Also they made a study for Kansas in 2008-2009 between athletes and non-athletes,Academic Performance Of Athletes And Non‐Athletes, and Page 41. COMPARING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES IN KANSAS IN 2008-2009 (n.d.): n. pag. Web.”high school athletes earned higher grades,graduated at a higher rate, dropped out of school less frequently, and scored higher on state assessments than did non-athletes”. Student athletes have a greater chance of graduating with a 3.0 or more. They are more

Parents and administrators have been wondering of sports are literally helping, or harming education. Schools have had after-school activities for decades, but this has made too difficult for many students to finish their work. Therefore, sports should be removed to increase the ability to save money, improve grades, and give kids the opportunity to pay more attention in class.

In Ripley’s article she said that when the Superintendent of Premont Independent School District Ernest Singleton canceled school sports the district saved $150,000 that year (11). In her article she states, “Maintaining a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year.”(Ripley 11). Because of these high costs schools should use the extra money for upgrading their academic tools. The evidence clearly states that the costs can have a gigantic effect on the school's budget.

Whenever someone goes to a school they are going to see that they have a sports team; however, people do not know how much these activities actually cost. According to author Amanda Ripley in a recent article about sports, she states that a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year (2). “For travel games, schools pay for the busses for teams and also for the band, cheerleaders, and hotels” (Ripley 4). This evidence shows that schools have money but they’re using on sports; instead of using the money on sports they can use it on the education or new technology for the school. Therefore if districts want to save any money they should really consider suspending after school sports.

A large amount of schools physical activities are provoking economic complications. According to an article by Amanda Ripley, “New bleachers would cost half a million dollars” (11). A school in Premont, Texas cut off their science lab which was infested in mold; yet, maintained their their after school sports (Ripley, 11). This supports the idea that schools are spending an excessive amount of money on their physical education that should be spent for educational purposes. This evidence proves that districts are spending truckloads of money on their after school physical education.

When schools cut sports from their schedule, districts would agree that they have saved money after eliminating them. Amanda Ripley states in the article, “Should Your School Get Rid of School Sports?” that new bleachers can cost half a million dollars and maintaining a grass field can cost more than $20,000 a year (11). The article also talks about schools having to pay for transportation, meals, and hotels for long trips to games and tournaments (Ripley 11). If you add all the numbers, physical activities can cost up to $570,000 a year, including extra money spent for hospitality for long distance games, that’s a tremendous amount of money! This shows that schools are paying an immense amount for athletic programs.

Sports and the general physical activities have been associated with a plethora of benefits. Not so much in correlation with education though. The debate on sports and academic performance relates as to whether sports affect academic performance positively or negatively. Mostly, academics, especially in high school and colleges, require an enormous time commitment. In the same way, sports demand time commitment. Apparently, academics and sports run linearly and either would consume the time of the other. Such would be the argument put forth by the claimants of the negative effects of sports on academic performance. The opponents to the positive correlation of sports and academic performance ground their arguments largely on the time commitment that the two require claiming that sports would consume a student’s time for study hence affecting their academic performance. Proponents of a positive correlation between sports and academic performance summon an extensive range of evidence showing that students who participate in sports perform well in academics. The proponents’ arguments are fetched from the proven benefits of exercise which improve a student’s overall well-being and motivate their academic performance. Opponents would, however, argue that the studies that find athletes and sports persons good at academics do not show how such correlations occur in that other factors could be the actual causes of the correlation and not sports in themselves. Regardless, opponents to the claim that sports affect academic performance positively cannot deny that sports affect the overall well being of any human being. As such, there is no denying that sports affect academic performance positively where a balance among the two is maintained.