Life as a College Athlete

I am not a college athlete, but apparently it is pretty tough. I do not know from personal experience, but at Purdue a friend told me that football and basketball games are so tough that if Purdue wins the home game they have to eat a fully catered steak dinner at an athletes-only dining hall to make up for it. This was in 2003, so I don't know whether it still goes on, but if it does I want to applaud these athletes for a job well done and wish that they enjoy every bite of their free meal.

While I doubt such treatment is given a winning lacrosse, cycling, or cross-country teams after home victories, the fact that these teams are not giving Purdue much money makes the preferential treatment understandable. However, it does not make it excusable, which brings me to the heart of my issue with college athletics. The main reason Purdue, and other universities, recruit for its sports teams is that it wants to make money. And, from what I have heard, the teams who win do a good job with it. College students like to get drunk and yell and pay to see their home team win, and the college gets a big bonus for bowl victories and Final Four bids, so winning is good for business. Unfortunately, since winning causes colleges to make money, they are so infatuated with it that they don't care what their athlete's reading level or GPA is. In addition, I don't think that they really care whether the athletes graduate.

To back up my claim I have some statistics from here that "Overall at the 117 Division 1A schools, 63 percent of white football student-athletes graduated versus only 47 percent of African-American football student-athletes. However, it must be noted that both African-American and white football players graduate at a higher rate than their male non-athletic peers in the student body. The graduation rate for African-American male students as a whole is only 40 percent, in comparison to the 61 percent graduation rate for white male students..." I don't have a study to back it up, but I read somewhere that the graduation rate of black and white male basketball players is a little higher than their respective football players, but only by 4 or 5 percent. This article shows that the graduation rate of our male athletes is pretty pathetic. Obviously, this means that the graduation rate of the average male is pretty pathetic, but I contend that a significant minority of average male college students are more devoted to partying than studying.

I don't mention other teams like wrestling, swimming, and tennis because I don't have a problem with these, or other lower profile, teams. I have a problem with football and basketball teams because, while just over half of the players graduate, apparently none of them think that they get what's coming to them. I beg to differ. I think that they've gotten enough and should be happy.

Nearly all of the starting, and most of the reserve, athletes in football and basketball either have a full or partial athletic scholarship. They're given preferential treatment with lots of things, from textbook prices to food to free clothes. The really good ones, like Reggie Bush last year, get loads of money under the table and do their best to not let anyone know. Maybe all of these favors make the athletes think that they'll get helped out in school too, which I think happens more than people realize, but still nearly half don't graduate. By not having to pay for much, all they have to focus on is school and their sport. I guess it's too much to ask for some.

Still, I'm not terribly upset that these athletes don't graduate. With all that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, they could graduate, but they can choose to waste the opportunity if they want to. I am upset, though, that despite everything they get, they don't think that they have enough. I mentioned earlier that a winning program is good for business. These athletes realize that they are the cause of the good business and want something to show for it. They want to get paid. Nice try, guys. I know that your schedule is demanding, but I it is no more demanding than a medical, pharmaceutical, engineering, or any non-liberal arts student (at least at Purdue). If you want to get paid, get a job. Maybe you can double as a scorekeeper or something.