College and university life are all about education and personal development. It is not merely vocational. Nor is it athletic.
An athlete may create a lucrative career for him or herself
with a successful team sport performance during the college years, but the
opposite is mostly true: athletes exit higher education with fewer completed
degrees and poor preparation for managing their careers. They frequently leave
school with broken bodies leading to early disabilities in their remaining
adulthood.
I understand the allure of college sports. I understand the
alumni wanting to support their alma mater through winning football and baseball
teams. It is even more exciting when gymnastics, tennis and golf team members
score large and move onto the national and international stages. How proud they
feel. Just remember not all athletes share in that success. Only the cream of
the crop get to the vaunted apex. The rest are fodder that supplies the
champions. They are second or third or fourth best. Most likely they wind up
much lower on the success scale!
The real success is the education the student gains through
study and hard work. Stretching the mind and character is the means to learning
about oneself and creating a platform for lifetime success. Athletics may be a
means to pay the tuition for that education, but it is not the end-all.
The purpose – mission – of the educational institution is
education. Not athletics. Not a national championship. Period.
Both are possible, however, if the institution does its job.
To do that, however, the college must protect the athlete’s intellectual
advancement first and sports second. The question is: do colleges and
universities do that? I think not.
They should and they can. Why don’t they?
June 24, 2021
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