Today in the United States College athletes lack the academic focus compared to non-athletic students. Since the United States education is already ranked in the low percentile in the world rankings they have to be focused on something other than education. Most college athletes are focused more on their sport and wanting to make a professional team than bettering their GPA. In order to have great academics and athletics I believe that college athletes should have more time towards academics than they do athletically. We often make statements like “Athletes get everything” or “How do they get scholarships with such low GPA’s?”  The people who make those types of statements don't understand what some go through and why they get to do what most think isn't fair. Throughout the 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 essay I will be arguing how participating in college athletics can affect an athlete's academics and how to go about fixing the problem. 

When talking about academics and college athlete’s, teachers and non-athletes have to put in account on all the standards college athletes 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 keep their scholarships. For example, one thing college athletes have to do is set up their schedule based on their sport and practice times. If a college athlete has a class during practice they will miss a lot from practice and may have to miss games, wait until the next season to play which can alter the scholarship they’re on. Trying to make sure they are cleared with their academic standards can be the hardest things for some, not all student athletes. For example, at the University of South Carolina, college athletes have to follow the National Collegiate Athletic Association requirements which include maintaining a 2.5 GPA in order to be on any team. Along with that, some athletes also combine athletic and academic scholarships that require students to maintain 3.0 or higher to receive it again the following semester. For incoming freshmen they must complete 16 core classes by the end of high school and the core GPA for the 16 core courses must be a 2.3. After their freshmen year on the college team, once they declare a major, all the classes have to go with the decided major to be eligible (that stops the athlete from taking classes that won’t help them pursue a major). They also have to attend class rather the teacher takes role or not. They have class checkers who are hired to make sure the student athlete are in class at the right time. If one is late or doesn’t show up it gets reported to the athletic academic advisors who then tell the coaches at the end of the week meeting.

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. At the University of South Carolina our football team has one of the strictest schedules within all the sporting programs. Their schedule only gives them a maximum of 4 to 5 hours per day to study and complete assignments before the need of sleep to function the next day. Talking to some of the football athletes they informed me that they can’t have any classes from 8am to 3pm because they have practice in the morning from 8 to 12, mandatory study hall from 2 to 3 or 2 to 5 (Tuesday and Thursdays), then classes from 4 to7 along with the time it takes to eat lunch and dinner. Academically they are required to take 8 hours of study hall each week. I asked a group of players if they had enough time to complete work comfortably and they all said “even our smartest players complain about not having enough time to finish work and get sleep for the next morning” and how they “don’t always put in full effort and look just to complete assignments so we won’t receive zeros.” Next I asked some of the volleyball girls athletes what their schedule was and if they had problems academically and getting enough sleep. The girls stated “even though our day is over by 7 o’clock we still end up staying up until 12am or 1am doing school work.” They wake up at 5:30am for a 6 to 7am weight lifting session then they have class from 8 to 10am. After their classes they attend study hall from 11 to 2pm, practice from 3 to 6pm the eat dinner at 7. The girls told me that they sleep in class due to the lack of time they have to do work throughout the day causing them to stay up later than usually if they didn’t play volleyball. Giving student athletes more time towards academics would allow them to get more sleep which is also needed to perform well both academically and athletically. The problem with having a small amount of time each day dedicated to academics is bad because it doesn’t allow student-athletes to show their full academic potential.

In order to perform well in anything you do, you have to have interest in what you’re trying to do. You also need some type of motivation for why you’re doing it. If the outcome isn’t what you want then you’ll do bad compared to someone who is motivated and wants whatever the outcome brings. Suzanne Cosh and Philip J. Tully states how  “Athletes are less motivated to perform academically than their non-athlete counterparts” (Lucas and Lovaglia, 2002). A survey was taken that showed the reason many student athletes choose to come to college out of high school but academics often isn’t their main priority. These students are focused on training at a different level with dreams of making it to the professional level. Academics when considered were often seen as a secondary priority. The athletes made their sport the primary priority knowing the bare minimum they need for academics. Some teams even make their athlete’s switch their major from what they wanted to major in (if it’s hard) to something that majority of the team is in. They do that because the athletes that take/took the easier major the team receives a great pass fail rating which makes the program better than others. Since the athletes choose programs that aren’t always good career choices it can affect them in the long run once they graduate and start their career. Ultimately, they are just trying to get a degree. 

To help my argument I am going to show different affects caused from participating in both sport and education. For example, how student athletes go through different emotion stages, handle stress, depression and other mental/physical problems. 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 Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton and Fletcher they state that the “stressors associated with elite-level sports consist of poor preparation, injury, performance expectations, self-presentation, and rivalry” (Cosh, Suzanne and Phillip J. Tully). Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton, and Fletcher also state that along with these stressors, there are those “outside of the context of competition but in relation to the sports organization itself” (Cosh, Suzanne and Phillip J. Tully) 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 discuss in their review is correct. If an athlete is performing poorly or injured most of their focus shifts over to what they can do to better themselves or get healthy, which takes a lot focus away from academics. Based on personal experience, when I was preforming terrible on top of being injured it felt like school tougher being that I had a lot of negative energy running through my mind. The thoughts of not being able to improve and not being able to compete brought me down. I would draw out better things I could be doing than being in school. It came to a point where my grades were in jeopardy because I only wanted to get better and recover faster. What the coaches did to help was set up appointments that I had to attend with psychologist and even got me a mentor so I wouldn’t feel alone. Performing badly may also lead to an injury in others or cause embarrassment in front of their peers which in turn can lead to lack of academic focus. Outside things like relationships can have an effect on student-athletes as well as everyone else. Since a student athlete has a lot of known problems and they don’t know about the problems of a regular student adding relationship problems with players, coaches or staff can cause lack of focus academically and more on fixing the problem. 

A common stressor that student athletes go through while performing 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 up or down academically. If an athlete realizes they aren’t going further than college they may take school more serious. If they realize they are going further than college they will put more effort in their sport because that is where they will be getting paid from rather than school.

Most college athletes have one huge goal that only 2% reach: to make it to the professional level. Some athletes view attending class everyday as a secondary job while hoping they can make it to the professional level so they can leave school. If they don’t feel like they’re performance is 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. 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). On the other hand some professors do realize what all the athletes they teach go through they just don’t care as much because the athlete knew before coming to college that they had a lot on their table. They notice the effort college student athletes put forward and sometimes they are more lenient or helpful depending on the circumstance. 

A helpful source that counters and helps my argument is the article The Academic Performance of College Athletes written by Peter Adler and Patricia A. Alder. In this article they talk about how “the relationship between the athletic participation and academic performance of college athletes” (Alder peter and Patricia A. Alder) is becoming a scholarly concern. They counter my argument in their studies that found a weak positive relationship between academic performance and athletic participation. In the study they found that “although most college athletes had poor academic records in high school, they have greater GPAs, lower attrition rates, and greater likelihood of graduating than non-athletes” (Alder peter and Patricia A. Alder). Peter Alder and Patricia Alder stated that because athletes get special treatment like special tutoring, more attention making sure they stay on track and excused absences which allows the athletes to receive a break. 

They then help my argument by stating that “most studies of college athletes have found a negative relationship between athletic participation and academic performance” (Alder peter and Patricia A. Alder). The conclusions to those studies found that college student athletes are not prepared for and or uninterested in academics. Peter and Patricia state that in the study the student athletes “They come to college to advance their athletic careers rather than their academic careers” (Alder peter and Patricia A. Alder). That is helping my argument because that shows how some athletes intentionally try to focus on just sports taking time away from them academically. In Peter’s and Patricia’s personal study first they show “that although most college athletes ultimately become disillusioned with and detached from academics” (Alder peter and Patricia A. Alder). When I asked freshman members of other athletic teams here at The University of South Carolina how school was going their first semester they all gave me positive answers. I then asked how this current semester was going and they told me they were stressing more because they didn’t have the same urgency for academics as they had when they first arrive to the university. They said time became limited due to traveling and athletic events and that’s where most of their stress came from. A common statement most of the athletes told me was either “I wouldn’t be here without athletics” which gives clear insight as to what they really came to school to do or “if I was a regular student and didn’t play a sport I would do better academically because I would have more time to focus and study”. Getting information from different people on different teams shows how much time really affects a college athlete. 

 I can relate to the argument where Peter and Patricia state how college athletes get more attention, tutoring and special breaks. College athletes do have mandatory tutoring sessions only if they request one for the semester which also takes up more time because the time spent in there is taking up time from working on other subjects. College athletes also get more attention because of the way we represent the school and our team. We also get attention from teachers because we have to be on their “good side” when it comes to missing their class to travel or rescheduling a test or assignment. Essentially we talk to the teachers more so we tend to stand out in a classroom setting. As for regular students we get attention from them just from being on a popular team. The only thing I can’t agree with in their argument is when they were naming the special things college athletes get and they stated how college athletes get a “special break”. First, I don’t think traveling for completion/events is consider a special break being that you still have to focus on academics like getting the notes and work you missed for that day. Second, you add something else to the schedule which starts to build stress which isn’t needed during a completion. Third, the thought of missing a due date while traveling due to the lack of internet service because the hotel internet isn’t always reliable. 

In conclusion the sources used help me argue why college athletes need more time academically and what it can do to that athlete. I told you where to go to get it fixed; who it affects most, how it affects athletes and the reasons why most college athletes suffer academically.
