Travel Teams
Introduction
My entire life I have played on numerous travel teams for different sports. I vaguely remember the countless hours spent at practice for these teams, more than an actual school team. I also remember the amount of money put into it, sometimes giving up my social life to play on the weekends, missing church on Sunday’s, and even missing school for a big tournament; travel teams have played a huge role in my life. That’s just it; there are an immense amount of kids that have given up many things in their life to play on travel teams. At a young age, it is installed in some kids’ heads that they must get a scholarship in order to go to college. For others, it has to do with fame and glory that they make it big in the pros. However, travel teams have some positives: being on a travel team helps build kids characters, it helps build relationships that are helpful to have in the future, and it helps kids earn scholarships to pay for college. The positive outlooks surpass the negatives, according to athletes across the nation who play on travel teams.
Negatives on Travel Teams
Travis Dorsch, an assistant professor at Utah State University, researches parents’ engagement in their children’s sports. His statistics found that up to 10.5 percent of parents’ income is spent on travel teams for their kids (The Rising Cost of Youth Sports, in Money and Emotion, Matters). He says that kids getting a college scholarship is a way to pay back their parents for
What most people don’t is that not all athletes get the full-ride scholarships that people think of. Most collegiate sports don’t even offer full-ride scholarships; instead they have a set amount of money that they can do whatever to give scholarships. According to a U.S. News article, “The average athletic scholarship is about $10,400. Only four sports offer full rides to all athletes who receive scholarships: football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball” (O'Shaughnessy). Just to put this into perspective, there are twenty-four total college sports, and only these 4 offer full scholarships. This showcases the rarity of a full-ride in college athletes. Looking into it even more, most of those college athletes come from low income families, “86 percent of college athletes come from below the poverty line” (Hayes 1). A college athlete's schedule is also very hectic. In an article showing the schedule of a football player, it lists, “6am-7am: Wake up,
Actions towards paying athletes are being taken and according to the TCU Daily Skiff, “There’s a legislation being passed around in the Big 12 states to provide athletes with an extra stipend in addition to their all-expenses paid education. The idea is that these students are producing truckloads of revenue for the university and should see some of the fruits of their labor.” (Jennings, par. 2) Because athletes aren’t paid for producing such money, supporters feel some of the money made should go towards helping with extra expenses. An average student athlete has to pay for phone bills, transportation, entertainment, laundry, toiletries and other things. While the typical college student has the opportunity to work, athletes don’t. Some students in college receive academic full ride scholarships, which are the same as athletic full rides, but they have time to earn extra money on the side. If these students are receiving a full ride scholarship and have the opportunity to work then an athlete should be paid a compensation for his or her efforts on the playing field.
Traveling always force ladies to dwell on their monthly menstrual cycle. It at times becomes very challenging and exasperating if you know that your periods are coming close to your traveling dates and you cannot alter or reschedule your travel dates. Because of lengthy hours of journey, frenzied traveling schedule and restricted time at the disposal could cause tiredness, frustration, which might cause menstrual period to come early or even befall irregular bleeding.
In, Do Athletes Face Unnecessary Parent Pressure?, it states that sometimes the only way to go to college in this tough economy is through a free ride (Do). This means that scholarships are often necessary for students to attend college. Parents cannot always provide enough money to send their children off to college. This is where scholarships come into play. Although some individuals disagree and believe sports are dangerous.
College sports can determine a person’s lifestyle. Determines whether or not they can go pro or get a job. Paying athletes can give them a better sense of money. They can learn how to save their money up, learn how to spend it correctly, and a great sense of financial awareness. The problem is that many
Whether or not student-athletes should be paid has been a hotly debated topic since the 1900s. College athletes spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing and devoting time and energy to sports as they do academics. For this, many athletes are rewarded with scholarship money. However, many people believe it is not enough. Should we pay student-athletes a slice of the wealth or is a full-ride scholarship enough? (Business Insider). What if the athlete gets injured? Where does the money come out of to support each athlete’s salary? The huge amount of money being generated from college sports has led some people to think that the athletes are entitled to some of that revenue. While, some think that student-athletes should be paid, others disagree for various reasons.
After high school, some students decide to make the decision to go to college to further their education, earn a degree, have fun, and some, to play sports. College sporting events bring in money through tickets, jerseys, shirts, and other gear. The money made for all of these items and expenses go to paying coaches, the school, charities, utilities, and other expenses a school has to pay to have a sports team. Most college athletes are given scholarships to allow them not to have to pay for college or anything that comes with the college experience. Some athletes, that are good enough athletically, do not ever pay for tuition, living expenses, meal plans, books, and everything else a normal student would have to pay for. For some college athletes that is not enough. Some college athletes believe that they should get a paycheck based on the money that the school makes on putting on sporting events that these athletes are participating in. Other college athletes are satisfied with the scholarship given to them and do not seek additional money.
Many believe that paying college athletes is wrong because they are amateurs, or students first and athletes second. With tuition continuing to raise the average athletic scholarships aren’t covering the costs anymore. There is a misconception that most college athletes on athletic scholarships are getting everything paid for, in reality that’s actually false. For example, a Division I basketball team is granted thirteen scholarships each year. Of those thirteen scholarships the University is allowed to split them up however they feel. These scholarships are for incoming students from high school and returning student athletes that had their scholarship picked up for another year. According to author Mark Kantrowitz, less than 20,000 students a year receive an entirely free ride to college (O’Shaughnessy, 2011). That number is students total, not student athletes, that is a very small number when you see that there were 453,347 NCAA student athletes in 2012-13 (Brown, 2013).
Every year in the United States, thousands of collegiate student-athletes participate in a variety of different sports, and currently they do not receive paychecks for their performances. College athletics have attained an extensive popularity increase among Americans over the past few decades. This has resulted into increased revenues for the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] and the participating colleges, which has fuelled the debate of whether or not college athletes should collect an income. College athletes should not be paid to play because it will negatively affect their college experience. Rather, they should be compensated for their dedication to the sport. Many student athletes accept scholarships to play at a
Are college athletics becoming the new face of professional sport leagues? What is the value of going to college when you have a $24-million-dollar contract on the table to go play for the Yankees, Celtics, or the Broncos? Is there any person that would give the opportunity, experience, or money to go play for a college on a scholarship? Because that amount of money is so insignificant, it will not pay for his/her whole tuition and have a chance at a career ending injury in result. These are the questions that loom around the mind of a student-athlete entering this stage in their career. However, there is a serious fight to having high school students attend college, earn a degree, and then enter a draft to a professional team. The disgrace with college sports makes us ask: should Division l athletes be paid over and beyond their scholarship?
In today’s world there are usually two people, athletes and non-athletes. Now out of the millions of sub-categories of humans; whether it be race or gender or preference or nationality, it all comes down to two types of people, those who play sports and those who watch. For those who play there is a whole lot of effort, and little reward. People say, “why can playing for a big-name school not be enough?” or, “You have a scholarship, quite asking for more”. Those who watch, think to themselves, those players probably have the highlife, flying in jets, and being paid money out of pocket. When they could not be further from the truth. For their extra work, and
Over the years, we have seen colleges and universities benefit extremely from their sports programs. Every year a great team brings tremendous amounts of revenue for their university. However, as these universities increase their finances, their athletes are falling behind financially, academically, socially and personally creating a huge burden upon them. College/university athletes practically work overtime for their academic institutions. While many perceive student athletes as living ‘the life’ because of sports, the reality remains that they suffer from social, personal, academic and psychological stress. They constantly live their lives by strict schedules to avoid falling behind in their multiple responsibilities .Student athletes face various pressures, yet they are not frequently rewarded; therefore their academic institutions should reward them financially, beyond scholarships for their participation in collegiate sports.
However, many if not most of those students, will not be able to come up with the money to pay for college until years later, when they have their own jobs and can make their own money. Even with their jobs, however, they still find themselves under the stress of thousands of dollars of debt. Students find themselves struggling throughout the year, finding ways to balance sports, education, and a social life. Students who feel prepared enough to tackle a sport their very first year of college often find themselves overwhelmed, thinking about all of the bills that they are leaving their parents at home to pay the price for. While families drown in debt because of the money that they owe in tuition, student loans, books, and meals, the coaches of college athletics are floating comfortably in the money that they receive for doing nothing but giving kids guidance that they already received in high school. These coaches are most likely not lifting one finger; they are hoping for a win from their team, and they are hoping for a bigger paycheck. However, coaches would not have even half of the career that they do without their student-athletes. Coaches would have no one to coach if there weren’t families willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars that they don’t have on their kids and the sport(s) that they have a passion to play. Coaches owe
Student athletes commonly go to school for one reason: their love for the sport they participate in. These student athletes get scholarships from large Division 1 schools, which means things such as schooling, board, and food will be paid for by the school so the student athletes do not have to pay for these benefits themselves (Patterson). If college athletes are to be paid, it will cause unfair compensation between players who are valued or played more than others. When student athletes are rewarded with a scholarship, they have nothing school related that they would need to pay for. This can lead them to blow all of their income on unnecessary or dangerous things such as drugs and alcohol which could get them removed from the team they
Opponents against paying student-athletes say that they should not be paid because through scholarships, they're already being paid. Yes, a scholarship is a form of payment. A scholarship is nice, but it is not enough. A scholarship will not pay the bills. Moreover, unlike ordinary students without athletics, student-athletes must also many times care for families and spouses. Actually, approximately 24% of student athletes are married, and of that 24%, about 62% have children. Of the students without their own spouses or children, many must care for parents and siblings.