Today in the United States we lack the academic focus compared to other countries. Since the United States academics are so low they have to be focused on something other than school. They are highly talented with athletics. We often make statements like “That isn’t fair” or “Why do they get special privileges”. The people who make those type of statements don't understand what some go through and why they get to do what most think isn't fair or privileged. Throughout this class my topic has been sport related. I’ve narrowed it down to just college athletes and their academics.The reason I narrowed it down to just college athletes because it is often said that college athletes have everything handed to them. In this argumentive essay I will be arguing how participating in college athletics can affect athlete's academics. What the other students/people don’t understand is how easy they have it. They don’t see the struggle that student athletes go through daily to understand why they do the things they do. 

When talking about academics and college athletes you have to put in account on all the standards they have to meet both academically and athletically. Athletes have a lot of standards they have to obtain in order to play in games, stay on the team and keeping their scholarships. Trying to make sure they are cleared with their academic standards is one of the hardest things. The contradiction that people often use when talking about college athletes is their GPA. Athletes have to maintain a 2.5 GPA in order to be on any team but along with that some athletes also combine athletic and academic scholarships that require a 3.0 or higher to receive it again the following semester. Everyone knows college is difficult when it comes down to studying, tests and doing the work. Imagine adding another 8 hours taken away from participating in a sport. 

Suzanne Cosh and Philip J. Tully states how “Athletes are less motivated to perform academically than their non athlete counterparts” (Lucas and Lovaglia, 2002). WHY AREN’T THEY MOTIVATED….. A survey was taken that showed the reason student athletes choose to come to college out of highschool and academics wasn’t their main priority. They were focused on training at a different level with dreams of making it to the professional level. Academics were put into account but placed as a secondary priority and the career choice some athletes choose aren’t always good career choices, just something to get them an associate's or bachelor's. Suzanne Cosh and Philip J. Tully states  “participating in both sports and education is highly demanding and stressful” (Burden, Tremayne and Marsh 2004). According to Suzanne Cosh and Phillip Tully they state that the stressors associated with elite-level sports consist of  “poor preparation, injury, performance expectations, self presentation, and rivalry” (Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton & Fletcher, 2009) along with the stressors outside of the context of competition but in relation to the sports organization itself such as “relationships and interpersonal demands in sport settings, athletic career and performance development” (Mellalieu et al., 2009). Personally from being a college athlete everything Suzanne and Philip stated is correct. Performing poorly makes athletes focus more on getting better than school work and performing bad may lead to an injury along with looking bad in front of your peers/teammates, all of that leads to lack of focus academically. Even the outside things like relationships, if an athlete is having problems in a relationship with players, coaches or girl/boyfriends that can make them focus on fixing the problem more than academics. The main thing that causes athletes to do poorly academically that Suzanne and Philip brought up is the performance development (are they getting better) and their athletic career (how far will they make it). Those two reasons will bring an athlete down academically.

 College athletes has one huge goal that only 2% reach and that's to make it to the professional level. Some athletes strictly go to class everyday as a secondary job hoping they can make it to the professional level so they can leave school. If they don’t feel like they’re performance isn't developing they’ll will start to worry and get the “dropout” feeling. If their performance level does not improve they will consider taking school more serious than their sport. HOW IS IT STRESSFUL (bring in time management and heavy workloads).....

Most people don't believe that college athletes don’t have problems academically. Research shows that “most faculty, administrators, and other students view college athletes in terms of the “dumb jock” stereotype, which characterizes athletes as less intelligent, motivated, or prepared for college courses compared to traditional students who do not play sports” (Edwards, 1984; Harrison, 2002; Sailes, 1996; Wininger and White 2008). 

   Counter argument for why people think athletes don't suffer academically while playing sports….. (Fining sources is the hard part…) after counterargument add refutation (you can relate to their argument but yours is more value because…)
