Read the point here.
Imagine Saturdays without college football, New Year’s without bowl games and March without the NCAA Tournament or the Final Four.While that may sound both horrendous and preposterous, it is exactly what my colleague is suggesting.
College football and basketball may get a lot of attention and marketability, making some feel as if they are professional sports, but those sports are focal points for universities across the country and provide a lot of people with a lot of different opportunities.
Without the commercialization of college football and basketball, there would be no money to support non-revenue generating sports.
Do you think NCAA football and basketball players are treated as professionals and are not fitting of their “amateur” status?
This may be true, but without them collegiate sports would look a lot different.
In the 2009 fiscal year, just 14 of the 120 Division-1 football schools made a profit from campus athletics.
“Many schools funnel profits from football and men’s basketball – which for the top schools can mean millions in Bowl Championship Series payments and NCAA tournament payments – into lower-profile sports that can’t rely on season ticket plans, TV packages and well- heeled donors,” the Associated Press wrote.
Those that think the business of collegiate athletics is a negative thing are only focusing on two major sports.
While college football may be treated as a professional sport, sports like gymnastics, wrestling, water polo, swimming, diving, cross-country and track among others would likely cease to exist if football and basketball were not commercialized.
College is supposed to be about education and preparation for the “real-world.”
However, many people have different interpretations of “preparing students for the future,” which is where the controversy of college basketball’s one-and-done rule comes in.
The answer comes in two parts.
First of all, not that many people leave college after one year so we are talking about a minority anyway.
Since the rule was implemented in 2009, there have been just 31 student-athletes who decided to leave college after just one year and were drafted in the first round of the NBA draft.
The second part of the answer stems from the fact that college is about preparing people for the real world.
Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, William Randolph Hearst and Michael Dell (founder of Dell) all either skipped college or did not finish.
They were all ready for the real world, so they left. While they did not get a degree, they got the preparation they needed.
Zuckerberg, Gates, Hearst and Dell all used college “as a launching pad” for their careers, so why can’t athletes do the same?
Just because society has determined people should stay in college for four years does not mean that everyone should.
There is no difference between Zuckerberg and college athletes.
Scientists, engineers and philosophers use the classroom to prepare for their future. If athletes want to use the college gym, court or field that is their choice.
If a football player needs three years to get ready for the NFL, or a basketball player one for the NBA then that is all they need.
Brilliant minds and billionaires were not questioned when they dropped out of school, so athletes should not be either.
College is meant to be a stepping-stone to the next level and student-athletes are using it as such, even if they are not doing it in a traditional sense.
There is no need to eliminate college athletics or revert to independent club sports. People simply need to be willing to let athletes prepare for the “real-world” the same way traditional students do.
