Jocks and athletes are portrayed as the ‘cool’ kids in near enough every movie going. This is where most college kids want to be, and that’s a good thing. There are certainly few people who’d fight against making sports cool. This is crucial with obesity and lack of exercise becoming real problems for young generations. If college life gets them moving, then it’s got to be a good thing. Even better if their college experience sees them embracing sport for the future.
From the outside, a life of sports is, after all, a healthy one. Not to mention that various athletic pursuits teach lessons which transfer to future careers. But, in recent years, there has been some question as to whether college sports are as healthy as we think.
For one, the competitive nature of these sports can cause high-stress levels for students. Not to mention that many sporting students struggle to find their place in the real world. While top college players like Parker Sniatynski are pretty much guaranteed future success, that’s a reality only around 2% of sport students face. For those remaining, life could be a struggle. Unless, of course, we change our approach to college sports in the following ways.
Even the score
When you get high up in the college sports realm, the game becomes everything. The majority of focused college athletes have to put in so much training that they have no time for classes. In the majority of cases, even those who do keep up settle for bare minimum scores in their classes. The trouble is that, when those same students leave college without an offer to go pro, they may struggle to get a career anywhere else. By focusing on sports and study, we could ensure even athletes who don’t make the big time can forge decent careers.
Remove exploitation
It’s also worth noting that college sports have fallen foul to exploitation a little in recent years. For obvious reasons, student-athletes can’t receive payment for their efforts. Still, the money coming in from college sports is becoming problematic. Even the NCAA now make around $8 billion a year. That’s not to mention the $11 million earned by top college coaches. That’s an astounding amount of money, and it’s an issue we need to look into. By returning at least some income to the players by way of improved facilities etc., that exploitation could become a thing of the past.
Focus on sounder sporting morals
In theory, sports should teach sound morals which student players can take forward with them. In an ideal world, any sport can teach about teamwork, work ethic, and much more. Sadly, morals seem to have gone out the window in college sports. Instead, this has become a shady world of corruption and obliterating standards. That’s not lessons we should be teaching our kids at all. By taking game morals back to basics, we can at least ensure sport students have decent skill sets to carry forward with them.
