Student Athletes And College Athletes

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

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

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

Imagine waking up at five thirty in the morning to participate in a team workout and practice scrimmage. Then, following a shower and breakfast, attending five hours of college level classes. And, after classes are completed, returning to the gym for practice for three physically exhausting hours. Then comes the hard part: sitting down to several grueling hours of the mental struggles associated with homework. Once the daily schedule is finally over, going to bed after one a.m. in order to repeat it all over again the next day. This is the life of a college athlete. No time to go hang out with friends. No time to go get a job to help pay off college debt. Many people realize their situations and want to compensate them for all of their

Student athletes have two jobs to do when they are in college, one is to be an overall great student in the classroom, by maintaining a good grade point average, studying hard for any upcoming exams and pay close attention during class. Their other job is being a phenomenal player in the sport that they play. To do this you need to, work hard and attend every practice, study your playbook or any type of strategy, and to compete at the highest level. This is a lot to handle for a college student. There are over 460,000 student athletes in all of the divisions in the NCAA today. With this large number of student athletes it seems

that organizes and regulates the student athletes of 1,281 institutions. According to the NCAA website, it hosts over 460,000 athletes, all of which work an average of 43.3 hours a week.

said he had to play to try to get out of his situation and they don’t. Therefore the NCAA knows their demographics for players and it taking advantage of them because for a lot of them this is the only chance they have to get out of their neighborhoods.

There are several up and downsides of being a student athlete but, the feeling of being apart of a team and doing something you love is the ultimate reward. According to the NCAA, “More than 460,000 NCAA student-athletes – more than ever before – compete in 24 sports every year” (“Student-Athletes”). Being a student athlete you learn how to be a part of a team as well as developing leadership qualities. Throughout your entire high school and or college athletic career, you’re creating everlasting friendships and memories with teammates and coaches. Being a student-athlete, your main priority is school but, with a busy and jammed packed schedule it can get a little overwhelming. With a busy schedule, student athletes have no choice other than to manage their time wisely. Along with learning time efficiency, participating in sport teaches you to be goal oriented. When you’re involved in sports, you push yourself physically and emotionally. You begin to set goals to better not only for yourself, but to better your team as well. Ultimately, there are several benefits of

The title “student-athlete” does not label college athletes well, the label should read “athlete-student”. Currently, it seems that college sports are a full time job. College athletes have to balance their time between the enormous amount of time in the gym, on the court, or on the field and the significant amount of homework each night. Brad Wolverton wrote an article titled, “NCAA Considers Easing Demands on Athlete’s Time” and stated, “Elite college athletes say they spend 40 or more hours a week on sports, with little downtime between seasons… Other students - particularly those who think they might play professional sports someday - want to dedicate even more time to athletics” (Wolverton 16). With college athletes becoming better through hours of practice and determination, colleges are able to accumulate large sums of money.

Imagine you are a salesman and just made an enormous sell but you don’t receive any of the money you just brought in to your company. Well being an athlete at a top program is very similar to that scenario. College athletics is a billion dollar industry, universities generate so much revenue during the year it would only be fair if the players received a part of their share. On the other hand people believe athletic scholarships, meal plans, tutors, and a roof over their head is more than enough compensation.

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.

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 is time for work, and there is time for play. Everyone knows that, because everyone has been told at least once before. At some point, there comes a time where you must choose between the two. For a student, the decision can be simple. Spend a night at the library to finish that final English paper, or spend a night out with friends to relieve some stress. For a student athlete, the choices are not exactly the same. For a student athlete, there may not even be a choice at all! Game days fall on test days, classes end as practice starts, and a night out with friends is better spent asleep in your bed. If you ask any athlete receiving scholarship, “play time” is not really play at all, it’s more like work. The second we pick up a ball in

The NAIA Governance Structure chart has 5 hierarchy that keeps the sports organization in order. It begins with the Council of Faculty Athletics Representatives the highest beings with the Registrars Association and Faculty Athletics Representatives Association, then the National Administrative Council consisting on NAIA Coaches Associations, Association of Independent Institutions, Sports Information Directors Association, Athletic Trainers Association, and Athletics Directors Association. Then their National Office of National Coordinating Committee and President & CEO and the highest is the Council of Presidents. (NAIA.org, 2015). To properly represent a student athlete, the Council of Faculty Athletics Representatives must consist of a total of 14 faculty athletic representatives chosen from various powers to have a balance (NAIA.org, 2015). I believe the Association of Student Athletes is very influential, because students sometimes accept guidance and advice from their peers a little easier than from a higher ranking person who may not be able to relate to them on some of the new struggles among athletes. This organization gives the student-athletes a chance to be heard about what changes they think could benefit the new athletes and the current athletes there now (NAIA.org, 2015).