Blog Post 2

I read “The Shame of College Sports” by Taylor Branch, “Should College Athletes be Paid? Why, They Already Are” by Seth Davis, and “Used Goods: Former African American College Student-Athletes’ Perception of Exploitation by Division I Universities” by Crystal Beamon.  I am interested in the disconnect between sports and academics for student-athletes.  College athletes are being forced to be choose between school and sports as if they are mutually exclusive.  Athletes are also being forced into majors that they have little to no interest in because they are more conducive to practice schedules.  This leads to many college athletes feeling like they are being exploited by sports programs with nothing to do because they are only at college because of university money.  I would like to focus on a way to make sports and school work together so that athletes can not only succeed academically but also athletically. The first thing that needs to happen is that athletes need a practice and game schedule for the whole semester before they choose their classes for the next semester.  Then student athletes will get first priority in class choices over all other students as well as advisers that can help select schedules that allow them to attend all of their classes on a weekly basis.  These students will also need the support of the coaches.  If they are late from a class to practice the coaches shouldn’t punish them so that they don’t get in the habit of leaving class early just to avoid the wrath of the coach.  Furthermore, students should be required to go to a study hall each week that is at least two hours for each class the student is enrolled in.  For example, if student is in 5 classes he/she would have to go to 10 hours of study hall a week.  The athletic programs have a very high income so some of this money should be required to go towards tutors who are proficient in a variety of subjects that are available to the student athletes in their study halls.  The only person with the power to affect all of these aspects of creating a well-rounded student athlete is the coaches of all of the various sports.  This issue is exigent to the coaches because if their athletes put too much focus into sports they may become ineligible to play despite athletic readiness.  On a broader scale very few college athletes are actually good enough to go to the professional level and make a living off of their sport.  This means that every year thousands of college athletes graduate with a degree that they don’t like or even fail to graduate because they got too far behind to understand.  This means that thousands of college athletes are entering society after essentially wasting four years of their lives.  The coaches as humans should care about the success of their student athletes in the long run as opposed to what each individual can do for the team for a brief four years.  Overall they coach is the only one with the power to help these students and allow them to gain something more long lasting than four years of a college sport.  Coaches have the resources and influence within the university to be able to campaign for the well-being of their students.