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Student-Athletes And Their Academic Performance

Nika Medilishi

AP Literature

Mr. Janosch

November 28th, 2017

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Sports may play a significantly influential role in student-athletes negatively. Consequently,

students who pursue different types of sports in colleges, have difficulties finding time to deal

with college work due to their busy schedule. Due to a number of reasons it is challenging to be

a college student. The fundamental complications are mostly related to the college work that

should be done in each class separately. Other than that, when a students make one of the

significant decision and choose their majors, they focus their whole attention on college and

study which for them becomes even more complicated to still stay the active member of a sports

team. It is equally important to mention that, as human beings, all students are different

individuals, with their different perspectives, ideas, and personalities. Some students go to

college to get a degree in order to get a good job, some to pursue their lifelong dreams, and some

to continue their career in sports and follow their dreams, but sports interfere with student’s

academic performance negatively. Studies show that being an athlete in Division I College is the

same as having a full-time job. According to ​the survey, “the most demanding sport is ​Division I

and II baseball​, which has the longest season of any collegiate sport. Division I baseball players

devote 42.1 hours a week to the sport during their season, which is 10.4 hours more than they

spend on academics.”​(O'Shaughnessy) This shows that the main challenge student-athletes face

in college is finding time to be athletes and students at the same time.. Being a good athlete is

hard, being a good athlete and maintaining good academic scores is even harder. So how do

student-athletes find time to be students and athletes at the same time? Well many of them can’t

because it is not up to them. Division 1 basketball and football players spend more time on their

sports than they do on their school work. Not spending enough time on school work affects on

their performance in classes, specifically on their grades.

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To be eligible to play sports either in high school or in college you need to maintain good grades

in classes otherwise you cannot participate in collegiate athletics. A 2.0 is required to participate

in sports in college, which does not sound pretty difficult but for athletes it’s hard. “A 2.0 is not

necessarily a difficult target to hit,” junior soccer player Neil Hilton said. “But, that target is

sometimes made difficult. Many times myself and others have been caught up with athletic

commitments that you forget some homework or are simply too tired to produce your best

work”(Hilton)

After winning the national championship game​ ​Cardale Jones wrote that “​he’d gone to Ohio

State to play football, not “to play school,” and that classes were pointless.” There are many

differences between a full time student and a student-athlete. A student does not have to worry

about their performance in sports and does not have to spend time in gym everyday when they

have homework to do. They are not going to classes tired because they had a practice before the

class. Athletes choose their schedule based on their practices and games. Of course being a full

time student is challenging as well, but it’s nothing compared to student-athletes. Full time

students are challenged in classes and their grades but student-athletes have extra pressure to

succeed as athletes as well as students. Being an athlete in college is a struggle that only they can

overcome. It’s on them if the can be an active athlete while maintaining a good GPA score.

There are a lot of things that affect student-athletes and get in their ways. In 2017 sports

competitiveness are at the highest level it’s ever been before. How hard is it to go pro? It’s really

hard. The odds of someone going pro is less than 2%. There are 18,684 NCAA student-athletes

but only 44-60 of them go pro, which is 1.1%. ​ ​Though 0.6 percent of high school players

ultimately get that far. These stats prove that student-athletes need college degree in case they do
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not pro, but they put all in to sports which they do not even get paid in.​ ​What is more important

for a student-athlete, being an athlete or being a student? ​“When student athletes were asked how

much they care about athletics, they rated their interest a healthy 8.5 on average, on a scale of 1

to 10. But when asked the value they place on academics, the result was higher than 9 on

average. If anything, the average student athlete cares more about his studies than his

sport.”(O'SHAUGHNESSY) Studies found that even though a student values academics more

than sports, an athlete still think that the rest of the team does not care about academics, which

has an affect on them negatively. An athlete tries to fit it with the team and pretends that they do

not care and academics are not that important, when in reality they all wished they did not spend

so much time in gym and have more time to study. 23% of Division 1 football players wished

they could get a break from their sports and 29% of Division I women basketball players wished

they could spend less time on the court.

Even though sports have a lot of negative affects on student-athletes, they can also have a

positive affects on them. Professor Ridpath argues that athletes in his classes are typically

stronger and more diligent students. He also thinks that activities outside of classes can help

students become better students. “Personally, I’ve observed that the athletes in my classes are

typically stronger, more diligent students. I do think that extra and/or co-curricular activity can

make for better and more focused students.”(Ridpath​)

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Work Cited

1. O'Shaughnessy, Lynn. “Do College Athletes Have Time to Be Students?” ​CBS News​, CBS

Interactive, 18 Feb. 2011,

www.cbsnews.com/news/do-college-athletes-have-time-to-be-students/​.

2. Thomas, Althea. “The Pros and Cons of Being a Student Athlete.” ​Zachstrecker​, 6 Dec. 2011,

zachstrecker.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/the-pros-and-cons-of-being-a-student-athl

ete/.

​3. “Why Student Athletes Continue To Fail.” ​Zocalo Public Square​, 20 Apr. 2015,

time.com/3827196/why-student-athletes-fail/.

4. Binder, William. “Life of a Student Athlete.” ​Life of a Student Athlete​, 11 Feb. 2011,

blogs.oc.edu/talon/cat/life_of_a_student_athlete/.