There is a reason that they are called student-athletes and not athlete-students, because being a student should come first. In many cases, however, it appears that it is the other way around. Colleges are focusing more on athletics than academics today, but colleges must start concerning themselves more with students' futures in the real world because very few will use their athletic experiences as much as they will use their education after they graduate. College sports has become like a job with players getting paid in scholarships, and the coach being the boss. The players must do what the coaches tell them to, and that is not always the best thing because coaches will do whatever it takes to win and earn money, even encouraging the use of drugs (Peck 36). Sometimes when coaches want players to come to their schools, they will give them preferential treatment and benefits while they participate in college sports regardless of NCAA rules (Saffici and Pellegrino 1 of 6). There is no doubt that college athletics are changing and becoming a big business, so the rules associated with how student-athletes are treated must change too (Saffici and Pellegrino 1 of 6). The majority of colleges do not have their priorities straight and that needs to change as well. There is proof that many colleges put athletics above academics. A survey done of 97 public schools that have major football programs revealed that spending on athletics between 2005 and 2008 increased at a rate of 4 to 11 times more than the spending on academics (Carey 1 of 2). What is worse is that if major programs continue in the direction they are headed, it will only cause athletic spending to rise and there will be an even greater imbalance in fiscal priorities (Ca... ... middle of paper ... ...ionary of American History 2.3 (2003): 4. online. 19 November 2013. Haney, Jim. "Coaches committed to graduation score." USA Today (2013): 2. online. 20 November 2013. Lee, Brian. "Are college sports worth the cost?" PBS (2011): 2. online. 20 November 2013. . Lenzi, Rachel. "Discipline outside of player's game also expected by NCAA, schools." The Blade (2012): 4. online. 19 November 2013. Peck, Rodney G. Drugs And Sports. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1992. print. Saffici, Chirstopher and Robert Pellegrino. "Intercollegiate Athletics vs. Academics: The Student-Athlete or the Athelte-Student." The Sport Journal 15.1 (2012): 6. online. Zuvanich, Adam. "COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Permian grad Adams still shining as student-athlete." Odessa American (2013): 3. online. 20 November 2013.
Van Rheenen, Derek. "Exploitation in College Sports: Race, Revenue, and Educational Reward." International Review for the Sociology of Sport 48.5 (2013): 550-71. Print.
Pappano, Laura. “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life” Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition, 8th ed. Pages 591-600. 2013.
Over the past 20 years, there has been a major increase in the popularity of college athletes. From 1989 to 2004, there was a 27% increase in ticket revenue (Brown). Despite the rigorous schedules the athletes had, they are still considered just a student. The NCAA cannot continue to allow these schools to work the athletes as much as they do without giving the athletes what they deserve. This is a horrible oppressive system that must be fixed.
Throughout the country young men and women are losing their priority for an education. To attend a university should be a highly cherished privilege, and it should be an even greater honor to play athletics for the university. Therefore, the writer supports the decision that the “student” comes before “athlete” in student-athlete. Playing for pay should be considered a job for “professionals”. In the rulebook, the NCAA views college athletes as armatures. This statement sums it up best. When athletes go to college, not all of them go in with the mindset that athletics is going to be their future job....
Paul Dietzel, former head coach of LSU, once said, “You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.” Ever since the beginning, not only children but also college athletes have been playing sports for the love of the game and have used it as a way to grow character, teamwork, and leadership. Although when playing for a University an athletes job is to bring in profit for the school, this is not why these young men and women have continued with these sports they love. It is usually these students passion, a way for them to express themselves like others have art and music. The question has been up whether these college athletes should be paid for their loyalty and income for the University but by paying these students more than their given scholarship, it would defeat the purpose and environment of a college sport versus a professional sport, cause recruiting disputes, and affect the colleges benefits from these school athletics.
College athletes are manipulated every day. Student athletes are working day in and day out to meet academic standards and to keep their level of play competitive. These athletes need to be rewarded and credited for their achievements. Not only are these athletes not being rewarded but they are also living with no money. Because the athletes are living off of no money they are very vulnerable to taking money from boosters and others that are willing to help them out. The problem with this is that the athletes are not only getting themselves in trouble but their athletic departments as well.
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The payment of NCAA student-athletes will deteriorate the value of an education to the athletes. The value of an education for a young man or woman cannot be measured. It is our gate way to success as...
Financial aspects and profitability of college athletic programs is one of the most important arguments involved in this controversy. A group of people expresses that college athletic programs are over emphasized. The point they show on the first hand, is that athletic programs are too expensive for community colleges and small universities. Besides, statistics prove that financial aspects of college athletic programs are extremely questionable. It is true that maintenance, and facility costs for athletic programs are significantly high in comparison to academic programs. Therefore, Denhart, Villwock, and Vedder argue that athletic programs drag money away from important academics programs and degrade their quality. According to them, median expenditures per athlete in Football Bowl Subdivision were $65,800 in 2006. And it has shown a 15.6 percent median expenditure increase fro...
Scores and Daily Analysis from Sports Illustrated. Warner. Web. 10 Sept. 2011. Miller, Amanda. "
For decades there has been a debate on student athletes and their drive to succeed in the classroom. From the very beginning of organized college level athletics, the goal to want to succeed in athletics has forced students to put academics to the back burner. In spite of the goal to want to succeed over a hundred years of attempts to check limits of intercollegiate athletic programs on colleges' academic standards still seems to struggle to this day. This brings to surface one of the most asked questions in sports, “What effect does college sports have on academics and economics?” Herbert D. Simons, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington, authors of “Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete” researched the topic on whether athletics and academics benefit each other. Bryan Flynn, the author of “College Sports vs. Academics” poses the question “Should institutions of higher learning continue to involve themselves in athletic programs that often turn out to be virtual arms races for recruiting talented players who bring big money and prestige, but put academics to the back burner?” Although both authors agree that sports have an impact on an athlete’s academics, the focus of their argument differs.
Toma, J. D. & Kramer II, D. A. (2009). The Uses of Intercollegiate Athletics: Opportunities and Challenges for the University. New Directions for Higher Education,