The story “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life,” by Laura Pappano observes that the college sports has grown bigger than ever before and there is ever increasing sense among the public and even the college presidents that sports are undermining the academic mission of the institutions. She argues that the main focus of many colleges and universities has become revolved around sports instead of focusing more on education. The explosion in televised games has seen sports spread more than ever and becoming a big part of the college life. Even though more people are focusing on the negative side of sports in the colleges, the universities themselves have been so reluctant to restore balance because they not only benefit from the revenue that the athletes bring but also use sports culture as a primary way to identify themselves ( Pappano, 2012 ). While it is true that sports have dominated universities and calls for some balance, too much focus should not be paid to the negative side of sports only, but also on how the universities can use the revenue they get to grow fiscally and to help the student-athletes grow their talent and move to the higher levels of their careers.
The current community is consumer driven, and every institution looks at ways of maximizing their revenue increasing benefits. The university athletes bring a lot of income to these institutions, and the main issue has been on how these resources generated by the student-athletes are used. As Pappano mentions in her story, big money has been used by those at the core leadership of the universities to cover up certain scandals such as that of Penn St. sexual abuse scandal. Instead, the big revenues generated from the sports should be used to help the institutions develop and grow and more significantly is to support the student-athletes because the success of the university in sports and the generation of extra revenue all depends on the talents of these athletes.
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According to Pappano (2012), many of the students who take part in the sports spend much of their time away from the key focus of the universities which is education. They spend much time away from classes during training, and they skip classes as they go for competitions and miss a lot concerning their education. This has a negative impact on their educational achievements. This was proved by the research done by Glen Waddell at the University of Oregon where the college transcripts of students who participate in sports were compared, and it was found that there is a drop in their performance ( Lindo, Swensen & Waddell, 2012 ). Students-athletes sacrifice a lot of their time to represent the universities in sports and help them generate revenue. The only way to also help these students grow and improve their career is to use the revenue generated from their talents to help them develop their career as well as their talents.
While it is undoubtedly true that the key purpose of the learning institutions is to provide education and help learners obtain educational success, sports as part of the co-curriculum activity cannot be ignored. Despite many people focusing only on the negative sides of the big-time athletes, it should be noted that sports play a vital role in the lives of the students. The point of focus should be on how best the universities can channel the revenue generated from the sports to help these athletes take their career to the next levels. The universities should support the student-athletes by offering them free college tuition as well as sponsoring their training so that they can take their career to the international levels ( Clotfelter 2011). Free college tuition can be provided using the revenue that most universities generate from the sporting events. Because it is the talents of the student-athletes that have helped generate these revenues, free college tuition can make a good appreciation for the talents and efforts that the student-athletes have put in place.
It is right time universities should focus on developing the talents of our sportsmen and women by investing heavily in them. America needs to nurture young talents of athletes who can represent the nation at the international competition because when they win, the whole country enjoys that pride. Instead of putting too much emphasis on the negative impacts of big-time athletes in the universities, it is time that people should look more into how to promote the talents of these young people and how universities can invest the revenues they generate from sporting events to develop the talents of the young athletes. Student-athletes are significant assets not only to the university but the nation at large. When they represent the universities, they build the reputation and help give it identity in addition to the revenue that s generated from their talents. It is, therefore, necessary that big money obtained from the sports be used to help and develop the young student-athletes.
In conclusion, Pappano makes a worthy clear point that sports have almost become part of the life of many universities. A lot of time is spent on sporting activities at the expense of education which is the core mission of all campuses and therefore the need to have some balance. However, it is not right to only focus on the negative side of the sports and ignore the importance it has to the universities, the student-athletes and the nation at large. What should be discussed is on how the universities can accommodate the young athletes and other sportspersons to grow their talents and get to the next levels of their career.
References
Pappano, L. (2012). How big-time sports ate college life. New York Times .
Clotfelter, C. T. (2011). Big-time sports in American universities . Cambridge University Press.
Lindo, J. M., Swensen, I. D., & Waddell, G. R. (2012). Are big-time sports a threat to student achievement? American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , 4 (4), 254-74.
