College Athletes - Required to Maintain a Certain Gpa Essay Example
Maintaining a Certain Grade Point Average as a College Athlete Should Be an Absolute Requirement Statistics show that only 2-3% of all college athletes will actually go pro. These students need to have other options when they are finished with college. Many college student athletes are poorly prepared for life when they graduate, and most are unprepared for anything but a professional sports career. Maintaining a certain grade point average as an athlete on a college sports team is imperative to the success of the individual. Therefore all college student athletes should be required to maintain a certain grade point average.
At a recent NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) convention, educators finally began taking steps to insure that athletes receive an education in something besides their chosen sport. One such step was requiring that schools make public their institutions graduation rate among athletes and compare this with the rate for the student body as a whole. While this may be admirable, it still is not enough to ensure “student athletes” to graduate without an education adequate for anything but an athletic career. [Petina] When there is no GPA requirement student athletes are able to complete their four years without a degree and at worst not even learning anything. Take for example, former defensive end for the Washington Redskins, Dexter Manley who left Oklahoma State University after four years, illiterate, unable to even read about his previous game’s accomplishments in the sports page on Monday morning. Another example is former running back for the University of Iowa, Ron Harmon whose course load included such courses as bowling, billiards, and watercolor painting. Although these courses may be good for diversity, to broaden a student’s horizons, it is ridiculous to build a course study around them. These are the courses Ron took while pursuing a degree in physical education, a degree he never did receive. The above
At a recent NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) convention, educators finally began taking steps to insure that athletes receive an education in something besides their chosen sport. One such step was requiring that schools make public their institutions graduation rate among athletes and compare this with the rate for the student body as a whole. While this may be admirable, it still is not enough to ensure “student athletes” to graduate without an education adequate for anything but an athletic career. [Petina] When there is no GPA requirement student athletes are able to complete their four years without a degree and at worst not even learning anything. Take for example, former defensive end for the Washington Redskins, Dexter Manley who left Oklahoma State University after four years, illiterate, unable to even read about his previous game’s accomplishments in the sports page on Monday morning. Another example is former running back for the University of Iowa, Ron Harmon whose course load included such courses as bowling, billiards, and watercolor painting. Although these courses may be good for diversity, to broaden a student’s horizons, it is ridiculous to build a course study around them. These are the courses Ron took while pursuing a degree in physical education, a degree he never did receive. The above