I am reacting to one of this week’s Higher Ed readings because as a former softball player in high school, I felt a compelling response towards this article, which basically argues for the “mistreatment” of college athletes. I found the college athletes’ problem to be very similar to our class discussion about students who are full time but have to manage multiple jobs and working hours. The article argues it is simply impractical and “exploitative” to have the athletes dedicate every waking hour to the team because it deprives them from their academia and other college opportunities that they have a right to participate in as students. I agree that colleges should scale back on the intensity of the athletic programs but at the same time, I don’t understand what the big issue really is… Don’t the college athletes know what they are getting themselves into when they signed up for the scholarship and the program? And by doing so, isn’t at least safe to assume that these students actually want to spend their time and full dedication to the college sport and eventually pursuing a future career in as a professional athlete player in their sport? I mean, if not, then the program isn’t really for these students, no?
Plus, I definitely don’t think it is impossible to be both a great athlete and have good grades–I know a very dedicated basketball superstar and biology major who has a 4.0 GPA, right on our campus–that’s right…go Brooklyn College! Anyways, though I agree that some schools may be expecting too much from their athlete students, I think that students also play an important part in making the decision. I feel like it ultimately boils down to the student’s motivation. If athletics are becoming unmanageable, they should consider focusing on what matters to them the most, instead of trying to juggle both academia and sports. During my time on the softball team in high school, I had the exact same dilemma. But then again, I had no one to “blame” but myself because I chose to take on the challenge. What do you guys think?
Article link: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/03/22/college-athletes-must-spend-unreasonable-amount-time-their-sports-essay#.Vw935yzcYmA.mailto
Lindie, nice post. You made some really good points, however, I’d like to disagree on one. You said that athletes are partly to blame for not having enough time to balance school and sports since they know what they’re getting themselves into. For some student-athletes this is definitely the case, but not for others. As a fan of the NBA I can tell you that many athletes who managed to go pro didn’t get such great educations. Some were very poor and didn’t go to good public schools. If they hadn’t made it to the NBA they might even have been completely broke. That fact, compounded by the fact that many college athletes don’t make it to a professional league, leaves me to believe that some student athletes really don’t understand what they’re getting themselves into. If sports does’t work out for them they end up in financial trouble. They therefore need to have some way of getting another job. Dedicating all their college years to their team isn’t going to help them do that. As you said, colleges need to cut back the hours they have to spend on sports so they can actually work on getting decent educations. I think everyone will benefit from that in the long run.
Jason, you made a really great point that never occurred to me but I realize now that it relates to an example in Selingo’s book…I agree with you; some students aren’t ready for college and don’t know what they are getting into. We definitely see it with the 3 trillion loan debt too.