Education is the foundation of anyone’s future, whether they be an athlete, a doctor, or a scholar. Pushing athletes too hard in sports by making them stay late for practices and games, practice everyday, and get up early for morning practices and games, has been proven to affect their academic performance. The majority of the time this plan does not work, but of course there are some coaches and players who work well with this plan, or even create a better plan that works for everyone.
All athletes have to learn how to manage their time wisely, especially when it comes to school and athletics; Although, it can become too much for even the best of the best to manage. For instance, “Athletes are often unable to take afternoon classes and are discouraged from pursuing specific majors,” (“How Do Athletics Affect Academic Performance”). All athletes should be encouraged and able to take classes in school and pursue a major they are interested in. Imagine that an athlete you know gets injured and can never play their sport again, and they never majored in anything while they were attending college.
That athlete would have to work a terrible job, just so they can survive, or go back to college; that means paying for two different colleges, and even more debt. All athletes should have a backup job, in case this situation occurs. To explain further, “60% of the University of North Carolina’s football and basketball players read below the 8th grade level, and 8% to 10% read at or below a third grade level,” (Power). Ever since elementary and middle school, these athletes put all of their time and effort into a sport that they love. It’s great for kids to be active and be doing something they love, but they should also be learning. Reading is such an important skill to have, and if these athletes can’t read past an eighth grade or even third grade level, why should they even be playing?
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Everyone should encourage academics before athletics. Hypothetically, LeBron James gets cut from the Los Angeles Lakers and can never play for any other team again, and he can only read at an eighth grade level. James would have to go back to school and learn how to read and major in something, or work a job he can barely live off of. In contrast, he gets kicked off the team and also majored in something when he was in college. Now, he can look for a job in that field and get paid well enough to live a decent life, not having to worry about finances. Making it a requirement at any college or on any sports team to major in something during college could ensure a job later down the road, even when they retire or have to leave the team, which seems much more comforting. Academic success varies from person to person. This success can vary widely between teammates, not just classmates. In addition, “Athletes in some sports consistently underperform their peers,” (Robinson).
These athletes tend to underperform some of the other classmates, because academics, for the most part, aren’t taken seriously enough to have the athlete worry about their grades and school life after high school. For example, “[Cardale] Jones shocked fans and football analysts by saying he wasn’t ready to go pro, that it was important for him to graduate from college first… He wrote [In a previous tweet] that he’d gone to Ohio State to play football, not “to play school,” and that classes were pointless. Jones now regrets and disavows that tweet. Earlier this month, he was tweeting that nothing is more important than education, under the hashtag ‘StudentBeforeAthlete,’” (Square). Jones realized that it is a good idea to have a backup career for anything that might come his way, and deconstruct his football career. Academics isn’t for everyone, but there’s always something that interests every athlete other than their particular sport.
Of course, there are always benefits to the opposing side of every argument. For instance, “Athletes had higher percentages of days of school attended, graduation rates, and Kansas assessment scores and lower dropout rates than non-athletes,” (Krings). Some colleges and universities do take school seriously, and they have made it a requirement to attend classes in order to attend practice. This has forced students to be proactive and learn to care about their education. Furthermore, “Division I athletes improved academically for the 12th consecutive year, earning another all-time high four-year Academic Progress Rate,” (Hosick). As said previously, athletes tend to underperform their peers, but in this case, athletes are beginning to care about school as time goes on. This could be because it is a requirement, or they are learning on their own that an education is important, as well as athletic careers. Athletes, coaches, and schools are beginning to recognize the importance of an education, even to use for a backup career. This is having an impact on the schools’ academic and even athletic performances.
Forcing athletes to get up early, stay late, and practice everyday has been shown to weaken their academic performance. Research shows that students who go to a school that makes it a requirement to take a certain amount of classes to participate in their sport leads to higher graduation rates and fewer days of school missed. Therefore, making it a priority to receive an education in college for athletes to participate in sports will increase graduation rates, assessment scores, days of school attended, and even give the student athlete a career to use as a backup, just in case their athletic career is cut short.
