College sports are an adventure beyond what the average athlete can imagine.
Collegiate sports is one of the body difficult things that someone can participate in during their young adulthood.
While some college athletes do it for the love of the game, and others do it to pay for school. I believe one thing strongly, that just an athletic scholarship is not enough for committed and top of the line athletes.
Athletic scholarships can only take someone so far, and with the average tuition cost, and rising student loans of college rising rapidly; they are supporting college athletes even less than before.
During the school year, the average college athlete spends approximately 2.5x as much time training for their sport than they do in the classroom and studying.
Myself being a college football player, this statistic doesn't surprise me at all.
In fact, I'm surprised it's not more.
From fall camp, early morning workouts, and spring ball, most of my college life goes to football rather than studying.
Also, as well as student-athletes having to work all year for our sport, during the season and during the off-season we have very little opportunity to work during the year.
This causes student-athletes to become progressively poorer and causes them to become malnourished, and doesn't leave much in the case for "college life".
Also, the few "big name" athletes spend even more of their time talking to media and external news outlets, which gives them even less time to study for classes.
For example, let's say a big name Division 1 football player needs to be interviewed by "College Gameday" and ESPN. This athlete is required by NCAA bylaws to have this interview or be suspended from their sport. This also means that the athlete must spend an extra 3 hours talking to the media before or after their game. Taking away a lot of valuable time for the team and athlete.
There are many arguments that can easily downplay a lot of points I have previous made, however, there is one that the NCAA and many people refuse to recognize and accept as a part of life.
The injuries.
I'm not talking about the bumps and bruises from many practices and games.
I'm talking the major, and severe injuries.Such as ligament tears, torn muscles, broken bones, and concussions.
These young athletes put their bodies on the line for their sports and they risk endangering themselves in many ways. Not only do they have to live with that knee injury for the rest of their season.
But the rest of their lives.
Fact of the matter is, college athletes are being put into a situation where they can be exploited by their schools for major profit.
Just look at college football or March Madness, the NCAA and many schools make millions of dollars.
While these athletes are still broke and sore from their games.
Is that really fair?
