Education and athletics, two of the most prized activities within our society. It's therefore no surprise that the two so closely link in one of our society’s favorite pastimes: college sports. Some believe that these two things benefit each other and some don’t. In the Forbes article titled “Rethinking the Benefits of College Athletics,” the author Jonathan Robe, a research fellow at the Center for College Affordability, explains, “In my short life, I’ve long been perplexed with the way many higher ed administrators–particularly college presidents–tend to laud college sports for the benefits they add to institutions of higher learning.“ He argues that college athletics do not benefit colleges and in some ways can even harm them. A majority of the supports are strong and, despite a few ineffective supports and language, Robe's argument is effective for its intended audience.
Robe’s first appeals to logic. Logic impresses a business audience like readers of Forbes magazine. He examines the notion that college athletics help create exposure for colleges and that itself being a benefit. Robe makes the concession this does create exposure based on his own personal experience, himself unaware of some smaller universities until he saw them competing. He questions, however, the real world value this exposure provides, asking “to what end is all this exposure?” This appeal, however, could offend readers that agree with him but also value college sports, affecting the credibility of Robe’s argument for his intended audience. While the title of Robe’s article will attract both readers who agree and disagree with his thesis, the article itself targets those that agree with his thesis. This appeal to logic and potential humor appeals to rea...
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...cle uses many rhetorical tools to support his argument. He includes an adequate amount of statistics, authorities, and appeals for credibility. Robe strengthens his argument further by making concessions to commonly held beliefs about the benefits of college sports, while putting forth convincing counter arguments. His argument are well rounded, examining the effects of college athletics on both academic institutions, as well as individual athletes. Some logical fallacies and ineffective language do have a negative effect on the argument, however, on balance the effective supports outweigh the ineffective, further convincing Robe’s intended audience.
Works Cited
Robe, Johnathan. "Rethinking the Benefits of College Athletics." Forbes 15 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. .
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It is no secret that college has absurd tuition prices. If colleges were to lower the prices of tuition, everyone would be universally happier. Brooks uses the following quote to address the obvious “it is the outrageous sticker price of a college education, and its steep upward climb in seeming defiance of the rest of the economy, that has fueled a demand to know why American families should sacrifice so much to a possibly dubious product.” (Brooks 59). Although I agree that college may be too inflated compared to off campus, I came to the realization that the price of college is mostly worth it. Umass Amherst has the best Sports Management program and is worth the money because they have the largest alumni in this field. They have alumni in all the major sports leagues in America and even in the other continents. They have a strong connection to Umass and tend to hire other Umass Amherst graduates from the McCormack Department of Sport Management. Brooks believes that instrumental learning, teaching students to pass the course, rather to understand the central questions of humanity hinders the value of college (Brooks 65). Yet this could not be further from the truth. The first time reading the essay I supported his arguments, but the more times I read the essay the more I began to disagree. At first, I questioned if a year’s tuition for
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...
Pappano, Laura. “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life” Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition, 8th ed. Pages 591-600. 2013.
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....
Beginning in the 1920s, public interest towards college sports sky rocketed with the growing opportunities of higher education for everyone, regardless of social status. This effect caused the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Education to take a closer look into this fast growing industry in the “Carnegie Report” in 1929. The report made a plea to the NCAA to reduce the level of commercialization and improve academic integrity for all student-athletes. This is just the first time the NCAA receives this very recommendation. Post World War II brought another increase in college attendance with government financed aid to veterans. Widespread availability of televisions and radios lead to broadcasting of college sport events, bringing in a multitude of fans as well as the expected friends and family of athletes. Soon gambling and excessive means of recruiting tempted the industry and the NCAA was forced to...
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about the pros and cons of paying college athletes, Dennis Johnson, a writer for The Sport
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