Student-Athletes Or Athletes?

ITG-SG / September 2016

Are college football players student-athletes or are they simply athletes of the university they attend? At first glance this question may seem rhetorical, but if you look at the state of top tier Division I football today, you may come to a different conclusion.

In 2012, former Ohio State quarterback and current Buffalo Bill Cardale Jones tweeted “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come here to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” This poorly thought out choice of words became highly scrutinized by many saying that he should be thankful that he is getting a “free” education from one of the nation’s premier universities. This is in part true; Cardale should have been a little more appreciative of the education that he was receiving from Ohio State University, and he should have known that he was receiving a scholarship designed to give football players an opportunity to earn an education in exchange for their athletic ability.

The real question: Are the football players STUDENT-athletes, or are they simply athletes who go to school on the side?

During Super Bowl XLIX Media Day, current Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman was asked, “Do you feel college student-athletes are given the time needed to take advantage of their free education?” To which Sherman replied “No,” citing schedule constraints that the athletic schedule places on athletes, football players particularly.

Sherman stated that a football player has weight training in the morning and then goes to class. After class, they go to meetings; after meetings, they go to practice; and finally, after practice, which ends around 7:30 p.m., they finally have their own time. That “free” time, Sherman stated, is usually spent studying for the classes the athlete had throughout the day. Sherman also noted that a lot of class schedules conflict with practice times, so it forces the athlete to choose between football and academics, to which Sherman said, “The coaches tell you you’re on scholarship for football, not school.”

The culture of major college football promotes the idea that athletics come before academics. Former Florida State defensive back Myron Rolle is a perfect example of how this culture affects the student-athlete. Rolle was a standout player at the high school level, where he became the No. 1 rated recruit by ESPN. After his senior year, he graduated with a 4.0 GPA and accepted an athletic scholarship to Florida State University. Rolle exceled on the football field at Florida State, earning Freshman All-America in 2006 and AP All-America in 2008.

While Rolle exceled on the field, he also exceled off of the field. Rolle graduated from Florida State in just 2.5 years with a B.S. in exercise science while maintaining a 3.75 GPA. Before his graduation in the fall of 2008, Rolle was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, which is one of the world’s most prestigious academic honors (the list of Rhodes Scholars includes people like Bill Clinton, Sec. of Labor Robert Reich, and Astronomer Edwin Hubble).

Rolle’s decision to accept the scholarship marked the beginning of the end of his career. Rolle missed the entire 2009 season in order to study on scholarship at Oxford University. In his official NFL Draft scouting report, Rolle’s only actual “weakness” was his decision to study at Oxford in 2009. This made NFL teams question Rolle’s long-term desire to play football and effectively ended his career before it even began. Had Rolle not accepted the scholarship and declared for the 2009 draft, he would have been a first-round pick and signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract that every college football player dreams of.

Instead, in 2010 Rolle was drafted with the 207^th pick in the sixth round and signed a four year contract worth the league minimum of $320,000 per year. Rolle retired in 2013 having never played in a regular season game. Rolle’s NFL career was a far cry from what it would have been had he not accepted the Rhodes Scholarship. Had he chosen the NFL over academics, he would have been a superstar athlete with lucrative contracts and endorsement deals. Rolle’s decision to choose academics over athletics penalized his dream of being an NFL player, and this is an absolute tragedy.

Popular culture also values athletic accomplishments over academic accomplishments. Student-athletes are continually praised by media figures for their on-field performances and are rarely, if ever, praised for their academic performances.

I’ll just ask this question: Can you name last year’s academic Heisman winner off of the top of your head? The answer is Ty Darlington of the University of Oklahoma. I do not think the average person will be able to answer that question without a quick Google search.

Now I will ask this question: Who won the actual Heisman trophy last year? I am willing to bet that a majority of people reading this article will instantly be able to identify that person as Derrick Henry of the University of Alabama.

This is exactly why football players choose to value their athletic ability over their academic ability. Simply stated, being a productive football player is a more popular choice than being a productive student. This is reflected in the money spent between the two in the university budget. In 2008, Ohio State University spent $13,184,957 in tuition costs. In that same year, Ohio State spent $14,108,419 in coach’s salaries alone. In fact, in 2008 only four of the top 40 schools in terms of expenditure spent more on tuition than coach’s salaries.

In short, football revenue basically pays the bills for major universities. The pressure put on football programs to generate revenue for these universities is growing more and more by the year. Coaches are now being hired and fired at a much greater rate than at any point in the past. The pressure put on coaches to perform is then transferred to the players to perform athletically. The players then have to make a choice: Either study for their classes or study game film for next week’s opponent. A majority of times, student-athletes choose the game film because they are on athletic scholarships; if they do not perform well, their pressured coaches will revoke their scholarships in favor of new recruits or more “deserving” players. The academics of players have to suffer because of the endless money being thrown at college football programs for positive on-field performance.

The disregard for academics is also traced to the athletes desire to play professionally. NFL caliber players have to maintain a lifestyle that is based around football. They have to make sure they maintain a certain weight, height, 40-yard dash time, scheme knowledge, concept knowledge, and a variety of other things all while maintaining the certain grade requirements to be eligible to play. Few athletes are able to maintain high levels in all of these categories. Those who cannot perform all at a high level will have to choose between football and academics. With an NFL contract being far more lucrative than the salary of a job that a bachelor degree warrants, it is easy to see which option the athlete picks.

At the end of every major problem in college football, the main culprit is usually money. The cash cow that is known as college football has significantly hindered the academic progress of the athletes that participate in this sport.