Student Athlete or Athlete Student?

By: Landon Freter

            Athletic students are huge part of going to college.  Athletics bring in more money to schools than any other program.  These athletes spend countless hours training, watching game films and sacrificing their bodies for the chance to be known as best in the nation.  They do all of this while trying to find the time to study for a test on anything from econometrics to Anatomy.  For most, academics is hopefully just a stepping stone on getting to the next level.

            In order to become a professional football player in the NFL, an athlete must be out of high school for three years before entering the NFL draft.  During these three years, the athlete may train and then enter the draft, or attend college for three years then enter the draft.  While skipping the college rout might seem more appealing, it usually does not turn out as well as one might hope.  

            With going to college, the athlete gains experience and during that time is where most of the NFL scouts do their “scouting.”  While attending a college, athletes on the team, believe or not, must have to be a student while playing a certain sport.  This presents a challenge to the athlete and brings up a question: Are they student athletes or athlete students?

            “I love the aspect of being an athlete, but the student part of college sports... I mean, c’mon who likes school?” said Patrick Greene, the Longsnapper for the University of Utah Utes.  Greene emphasized that being a student before an athlete is the most important because most student athletes don’t play sports into the professional level.  “I know for me, a longsnapper can play in the NFL for 10 plus years, its not very likely I will get drafted.”  He goes on to explain how getting a degree is the most important part of college so that he will have something to “fall back on” if going pro doesn’t work out.

            Karl Williams, a Fullback, agrees, “Some guys on the team have the mindset they are good enough to go pro so they focus on the athlete aspect of being a student athlete.” There are over 420,000 student athletes in the nation and just about all go pro in something other than sports.  “I have heard of guys just on the team for the scholarship and they happen to be good at sports.  They know they are not good enough to be athletes at a professional level, so they work really hard in school,” added Williams.

            Being a student athlete implies that a student enrolled who plays a college sport are involved in secondary activities that betters the college experience.  As the NCAA states, “Student-athletes must, therefore, be students first.”  The upsetting part is, most views on the athletes and in some cases views of the school, puts more of a focus on the athletic programs, rather than the academic, which takes away from the point of going to college.