Skit Analysis Essay

As Academic Performance Ratings and Graduation Success Rates climb, one begins to realize that “student-athletes” are not just “dumb jocks.” In actuality, compared to the general population of students, athletes have a higher overall graduation rate. The national graduation rate for athletes is 64 percent, while the graduation rate for all students is only 62 percent (Lawler). The NCAA has made great strides in making sure schools work to turn out “educated jocks.”

This business transaction involves the universities’ greed for money. Universities will almost never turn down a money offer. Having a top notch athletic department is great for them especially, for the television revenue. After all, they only care to better

No one can deny the social segregation between nerds and athletes. We see it in the media and reality. Most turn a blind eye to this social occurrence, some put an emphasis towards it. A passionate writer by the name of Leonid Fridman wrote a passage titled, “America Needs Its Nerds,” which expands upon our nation’s social treatment of scholars. Fridman emphasizes the need of individuals who place their focus on learning to help advance our country versus one focusing on less important aspects such as athletics. Fridman uses dramatic tone and ethos to convey to his readers how “geeks and nerds” are undermined instead of admired in our society.

A prominent reason why high school sports is detrimental to academic accomplishments of students is because of how sports act as a powerful distractor to education. When a student starts to play sports in school, their mindset shifts from being focused on learning to now focusing on improving at their sport of choice. Sports are just another thing that consumes the time and attention of people. This simple fact clearly presents a problem because it means less effort can be dedicated towards academics. A perfect example of how sports teams magnify this effect of reducing academic effort is presented in the article “Why Student Athletes Continue to Fail” when it explains “Tight-knit student athletes will seek ways of fitting into a culture that they perceive as neglecting academics (by defaulting into majors of dubious merit and spending less time doing homework), knowing that their habits are observed by teammates” (Oppenheimer). Clearly, this statement demonstrates that school sports create an environment where students feel pressured to adopt a callous attitude towards academics. Since sports teams form a strong bond between the members of the team, the impact of peer pressure is emphasized because each student wants to behave like the others simply to feel connected to the group.

Sports have always been a hot topic in the academic world. They are seen as a great extracurricular activity that creates a sense of community between players. On the other hand, sports are viewed as a distraction from school. Everyone can agree that sports have become the focal point at many schools leading teachers to feel academics have become secondary. The seemingly endless debate is addressed by Dr. Mark Edmundson in an article of his that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

that student athletes are students who gain access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board and other allowable

Every Saturday during the fall season, everyone will tune into watch the coveted college football games. Watching The Ohio State Buckeyes or The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, battle on the field to see who is the true victor. But no one every truly ask what the money is behind the programs. The Ohio State Football teams annual cost is $34,026,871 while the whole university annual budget is $5.7 Billon (). Just the football team is .59% of all the budget, even though this seems like a very minimal number it is quite huge mathematically. If the college would choose to make budget cuts the odds of the program being cut are so minimal, they would rather cut the English department even though it is way less beneficial for the college. College football is one of the few varsity level sports that all colleges have, most sports programs a black-holes money wise. Sucking in vigorous amount of funds while returning little to none. In 2014 out of the 130 DI Football teams only 24 teams actually made a profit from the sport (). Football being the number one sport in most colleges. The bigger the school the more money it will be able to produce from the football team but this is very rare. The whole subject about why college sports are even a thing is very controversial. One has to truly look at if the whole athletic programs are truly worth it. College athletic programs are very controversial and should be cut in some schools. College athletic programs cost way too much, are rarely

Robert and Amy McCormick, law professors at Michigan State University, believe that some student-athletes attend college to play sports and that due to scheduling conflicts between class and practices they do not have full choice as to what major they would like to take (Cooper, 12 – 13). “The way football and basketball players in Division I programs manage juggling sport and school, the McCormicks maintain, undermines the NCAA’s contention they are student-athletes.” (Cooper, 12-13).

College football rules many regions of the United States of America, especially in the southern regions. Alumni of the certain colleges and other supporters pack respective stadiums every Saturday and passionately cheer for their teams in an attempt to ensure victory. Undoubtedly, there are few traditions in the United States that compare to College Football. The sport ensures that family members have something to relate to, brings communities much closer, and creates great moments shared around the country. Perhaps most importantly, there is one more thing that college football does quite well. The sport regularly and consistently creates the interest and demand required in order to make a considerable profit. However, the student athletes most responsible for the increased revenue enjoyed by the respective Universities around this country do not receive any of the money, despite the fact that they are the ones most important to the financial inflow. Many people believe that it is unjust to not financially reward the people most responsible for making the team money, and that college football players should be adequately compensated for their performances on the gridiron.

Sports, especially football, are a major part of the universities in the United States. Many times they are valued over education. Many college athletes end up getting a poor education, because they tend to look at how the universities sports teams are doing rather than the level of education they will be getting. Steven Salzburg notices this problem and writes about it in his article “Get Football Out of Our Universities.” He acknowledges the fact that we have prioritized a game used to entertain people over the education of Americans and that this trend has to come to an end. According to him, football needs to be removed from the university system in order to avoid becoming “the big, dumb jock on the world stage” (1). Salzburg uses a combination of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in an unsuccessful effort to persuade universities and avid football fans that the interest in football is jeopardizing our advances in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Because of the immense amount of hours devoted to their sport, college athletes find it extremely difficult to make time for their studies. While having the title, student-athlete, education should be the first priority for these young men and women. However, as of now, athletics seems to be their biggest priority and their studies little to none. This is where the principle of Amateurism comes in. Amateurism is what distinguishes these young men and women as student-athletes, not professionals. Amateurism helps keep academics the main priority, and sports second. Additionally, Amateurism does not allow for any employee relations or benefits such as professional contracts, salary, prize money, benefits, or other affiliations with professional teams (“Amateurism”). Since they aren’t getting paid as employees for all of their hard work, why put in so many hours? College athletes clearly lack the necessary time to devote to their education

Traditionally, a professional athlete’s main focus is to make money and provide for that individual and their family. If student-athletes were to be paid, they would not have to go professional to make money and could gain a better education by remaining in school. When referring to a student who takes part in athletics, the most commonly used phrase is “student athlete”. The American people who follow college sports tend to place more emphasis on the word athlete and less emphasis on the word student. Even though being a student is of great importance, college athletes generate millions of dollars for their prospective universities annually. Being a student is difficult enough and most college athletes do not have the time to devote

There are these ongoing stereotypes that student athletes are “dumb,” “lazy,” and “privileged.” It’s understandable that people believe these stereotypes, news magazines and reports are always talking about how athletes are “coddled” and “cheat” their way to success. Though it is nowhere near true for the majority of student athletes, a select few situations encourage this negative categorization of us, thus putting student athletes under even more pressure to perform. Student athletes are constantly misjudged and the assumptions are affecting us.

The “contradiction at the heart of big-time college football,” as Michael Oriard describes it, is the competing demands of marketing and education. The 1890s proved to university administrators that there was an enormous market for collegiate football, which postulated opportunities for university building. Since this ubiquitous realization, there has coincided this blatant, yet unchanging contradiction that academic institutions are permitted to profit off of the services provided by its student-athletes while the athletes must idly accept that they are amateurs, donating their efforts to their respective schools. The schools then direct this revenue toward strengthening their athletic departments, and thus continues this seemingly endless growth of big-time college sports, all while athletes remain uncompensated and academics continue to take a backseat.

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