The Issue Of College Sports Essay

Before high school athletes totally rule out trying to play sports in college they need to consider the similarity and differences between high school and college sports. As young children, most high school athletes started out dreaming about being a sports star and making it into the professional. If these dreams are given up because college sports seem out of reach or too difficult, they will never know where they could have ended up. College sports can seem like a big step from high school sports but in the end they have many similarities.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is an $11-billion-dollar industry that provides high school athletes the opportunity to continue their athletic careers while still getting an education. The NCAA is divided into three divisions; Division 1,2and 3. Between these 3 divisions the NCAA accounts for 72,788 football players. At the Division 1 level, athletes are awarded full athletic scholarships, also known as “full rides.” These athletes are in the top tier of their sport and some may even go on to play professionally. Division 2 athletes are looked at as 2nd best in comparison to Division 1 but nonetheless still have a lot of competition and offer partial athletic scholarships. The last of part of the NCAA is Division 3, where no athletic scholarships are awarded. One of the most controversial topics about athletic scholarships is why Division 3 schools don’t get any and this is best exemplified through the sport of football. In my opinion, all NCAA football players should receive full athletic scholarships regardless of division.

The current athletics systems in many large colleges are no longer beneficial to student-athletes or the academic premise the schools were founded under and are in need of intensive restructuring. Ernest Boyer, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching said, "I believe that the college sports system is one of the most corrupting and destructive influences on higher education" (1999). In fact, it is widely acknowledged that there is corruption by many college coaches in the areas of recruiting, eligibility, degree progress, and academic integrity of athletes. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), the national governing and accrediting agency for college athletics, possesses the duty of

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.

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

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.

In college sports athletes perform on the big stage in front of thousands of people every week and receive no money for their performances. These athletes receive no money for their performance because it is made illegal by the NCAA for any student athlete to receive any type of reward for their performance. In the last five years there has been a heated debate on whether the NCCA should start paying college athletes. People responded to this situation with mixed views and opinions. The first reason that people have shown views against pay for play is because scholarships pay for college athlete’s school either fully or partially. Secondly people believe pay for play would create jealousy and hypocrisy on college

The world of sports has grown larger than life over the past century, especially in college. Being a collegiate athlete is, without question, the hardest athletic profession in the world. Not only are students devoted to their sport, which requires an obscene amount of time of preparation, but they are also devoted to their school work. And the award they receive for their hard work? Of course there are the great memories, friendships made, “free education”, or national championships, but are theses students receiving their fair share? Should college athletes be paid? It is a question that has been asked, but never truly answered. College athletes should be paid for their work. I even have the perfect system to see

Over the past 25 years, ESPN has become the master when it comes to marketing college basketball. They're the professionals of this amateur game. Earlier this spring ESPN and its spinoffs ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Classic aired a record 97 conference tournament men's basketball games over an eight day period, including 16 games broadcast from 10 different locations on March 12 (Hiestand). For fans of the sport ESPN has become a college hoops haven. CBS may garner the most attention for its $6 billion 11-year contract, which gives the network exclusive broadcasting rights for the season-ending men's NCAA tournament, but it is ESPN, which is responsible for the game's dramatic rise in

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.

All men are said to be created equal, in my opinion, not all men. Some have a drive that's greater than most. Everyone wants an Athletic-Scholarship, but not everyone is willing to put in the time, effort, commitment, dedication and preservation to be the best Student-Athlete representing their school. For every good in life comes a sacrifice. Nothing valuable is going to come to you and to obtain something of such value you have to be willing to take a risk. In my life, I’ve taken many risk, some that were life changing and change who I am today. Many of my peers take risks and regret taking them down the line. Taking this risk gave me more time to think about how I wanted to move forward in regards to my future, getting more involved in my community/activities, and dedicate more time into my current task on become a better student-athlete.

In high school many kids often choose not to participate in extra curricular activities saying that there pointless or that only a certain type of person would do something like play football, or join the chess club. While this type of thinking may get some people through school and through life, can it really be looked at as being a healthy lifestyle? Today sports have proven to be a healthy outlet for students, in dealing with stress in the classroom at home and among their peers.

     For my career research paper I have chosen to delve into the world of the sportswriter, and take a closer look at what that occupation may hold for myself. I have chosen to research this form of journalism because I consider myself to be a sports fanatic, and would very much enjoy spending the rest of my working days writing about the conditions in the world of sports. During the last year or so I have taken a period of time everyday to relax and read over sports articles from baseball and football at some of my favorite websites, such as espn.com or nesn.com, or to sit down and watch Sports Center on ESPN. I also seem to have an ability to remember statistics and rosters of players and

"Politics has come to be considered not only inappropriate in the arena of sports, but actually antithetical to it," Zirin says. "We want so much to see sports solely as an arena of play, not seriousness. But here's the thing, this can cheapen not only the greatness and relevance of sports to us as a society, but also the courage of the athletes" (The Nation). The pursuit of fame, wealth and status can blind the human conscious, which is why it is important for us to encourage athletes to speak their minds. As a nation, we should not silence the athletes, because it is the truly courageous athletes who have the audacity to stand up when it’s not popular. Sports should be used as a platform for a certain kind of politics: militarism,

“Sports are for fun, but they also offer benefits and lessons that carry over into all aspects of life”. This well-known anonymous quotation conveys the message that sport is the game which has some rules and custom. It is not only for fun and entertainment, but there are also some benefits of playing sports and which gives some important lessons for life. Every kind of physical sports is healthy because it involves running, jumping, stretching, mind skills and much more. There are so many sports available in the world nowadays, but we can categorize them by the numbers of players, the three main categories are individual sport, dual sport and team sport.