Pay Them : The Perfect Business

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 ).

Being an athlete in college is stressful. Many hours of film, practice, weight training, traveling, as well as keeping up with your schoolwork can be tough. Some student athletes are able to come up with a plan that works for them so they’re not as stressed, while others burry themselves in stress. Lazarus and Folkman (1996) have defined stress as the negative feeling that occurs when an individual feels unable to cope with the demands placed upon them by their environment. One of the stressors that many freshmen experience is having their start status taken from them. If you come to a college for sports you are more than likely on a scholarship. You also were likely to be the star on your high school team. Coming to college there is a lot of talent and not having a full developed body, as well as an understanding about how fast things are on the colligate level can weigh on you.

Although most student athletes never become professionals, they spend excessive amounts of time playing sports neglecting their education. There are many possible solutions to balance academics with athletics. One possible solution may be to screen perspective student athletes before accepting them into

Athletes are giving it there all both on the field and in the classroom. College athletes are brought to the school on scholarships to play sports. These athletes are giving it there all going back and forth from classes, to the weight room, to studying, and to practices. But they mostly spend a lot of time practicing rather than going to classes. ““These young men are laboring under very strict and arduous conditions, so they really are laborers in terms of the physical demands on them while there also trying to go to school and being required to go to school.” Says Robert McCormick (2011, Kenneth J. Cooper). What Robert means is that these students have a huge amount of work load on them while also being required to go to school at the same time. These athletes aren’t like every other students. Even before the school year starts, athletes have to come to schools weeks early. Having a summer off is what normal college students have

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

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.”

Students in college have to balance many activities: school, friends, work, health, and everything in between. Being a student athlete adds a whole new workload. Not only do student athletes have to balance class, studying, and homework, but they also have workouts, meetings, events, games, and of course, practice. Not even mentioning a social life, a student athlete 's daily schedule is already packed full. Typically, a student athlete wakes up, goes to a workout that is followed by classes, then another workout, and finally time for studying and homework.

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

The NCAA has relied heavily on the age-old characterization of college athletes as “amateurs” who are first and foremost “student-athletes” (Sanderson and Siegfried). Because they are considered students and

Many athletes spend lots of hours dedicated to their sport of choice. They do this by practicing in their free time, team practice, team meetings, and traveling. Then, they have to study for their classes. This to me is like working a full time job with a heavy load ofn classes you have to attend to and do well. Dave Anderson stated, “College athletes spend an average of 43.3 hours per week dedicated to their sport” (Anderson 1). Also, Anderson stated, “This means that college athletes have to work 90 hours per week just to remain in school on their scholarship. This is the equivalent to working two full time jobs with a side job on the weekends just to pay their bills” (Anderson 2). Sports can put a lot of stress on a student’s school work achievement goals. People should know that college for student athletes demands a lot out of them and basically drains them physically as well as mentally. This is based on all the time they spend on sports and

College was a dream that was made possible by playing more than one sport. College is an easy transition for these athletes because it’s not that much different from their high school lifestyle. The routine is easier for them, they can manage their time with homework, practices and a social life at a stress free cost because of their time management skills. In the early stages of an athlete’s recruitment, many coaches are drawn to them because of their multi-sport abilities. Making friends comes easy to those athletes and they have the ability to become close to all of your new teammates and with the coaching staff. Athletes can go into this season ready to play, healthy body at hand, and fully confident in their success in this year. This was all possible because they played multiple sports. It laid down the path to their dream. And like everyone else they did everything possible to help them achieve

Everyone has his or her own ideas of what the ‘college experience’ should include and be like. Some thoughts on the subject include going out a lot, meeting lots of new people, and dating many different people. Other people consider it the education, and finding someone to settle down with.

While high school student-athletes invest a lot of time and energy into their sport, the collegiate lifestyle brings a new level of difficulty that many incoming freshmen can find intimidating and overwhelming at first. In addition to being under more pressure to perform on a larger, more competitive stage in front of a more expansive audience, they must also deal with the every day challenges that normal college freshmen face: homesickness, transitioning into a more demanding academic workload, and creating a new social network. College athletes have to have their routines extremely time focused, and make time management essential to their daily lives.

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