<p>Sports in general (and football in particular) are huge industries in this country. There really is so much a collegiate athlete can do with his/her collegiate sports experience. These students really are experts in their sport by the time they graduate and can offer unique contributions to careers involving such things as team-building consulting, coaching, teaching, sports medicine, marketing, media reporting and announcing, uniform design and every sort of administrative job related to the sports entertainment industry. I don’t know why some people don’t see this.</p>
<p>It would make a lot of sense for some colleges to offer majors in “Sports.” Maybe then athletics would be validated as a legitimate manifestation of a college’s mission.</p>
<p>No, that’s not a universal truth at all. For example, at NU, the art major receives a BA just like the history major or biology major. The theatre major, likewise, receives a BA. The music majors have the option of a BA or a BM. There is no BFA offered.</p>
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<p>Right. Which is why I say, because it’s not an academic discipline, it’s not part of a college’s mission (IMO).</p>
<p>No one is arguing that if a student went through a Sports Marketing and Management type of major, they couldn’t find employment. But that’s not what most athletes are doing now, are they?</p>
<p>How are you defining “academic discipline?” Is there a universal meaning for this phrase, or does it just mean whatever knowledge is being taught at the university? Would a course in acting be an “academic discipline?” How would this course in the “fundamentals of acting” differ from an athletic practice during which a college tennis coach imparts expert knowledge to his players on serving techniques, muscle-group strengthening, team-work, game strategy and nutrition? Or do you think that college athletes never learn anything from playing at the collegiate level?</p>
<p>You raise very interesting questions. I don’t know that I’ve thought through the parameters.</p>
<p>I had a sorority sister in college who was the baton-twirler for the football team (OMG I just found out it was the Big 10!!!). Does that mean any instruction she learned on how to twirl the baton and put together her routine was academic in nature?</p>
<p>How about bowling? If the school has a bowling team / league, is that academic in nature, and should they get credit for it? </p>
<p>I don’t have any reason for thinking this other than this is how I think, but I’m willing to say that I think instruction in acting, in fine arts, in music performance are academic disciplines and baton-twirling, bowling, yoga and football are not.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what you mean by this. I have never seen any studies on athletes’ careers after college, but I would expect that many of them do pursue a career related in some way to their collegiate sports experience. If their college does not offer a sports-related major, then obviously they cannot graduate with that degree. I’ll bet that most of your kids’ high school and club sports coaches played collegiate sports, for instance, and they did not major in “Sports Marketing.” Why would that be necessary?</p>
<p>When I was in college in the early 70s, we were required to take 6 credits of physical education in order to graduate. So I received academic credit for golf, swimming and sailing.</p>
<p>Most college athletes do not go on to pursue careers as professional athletes or coaches. In fact, only the top 2% of all high school athletes in the US go on to play college sports. After college, of that same 2%, only about 1% or less of those athletes end up getting paid to play their sport. Take out the exceptions, like top NBA or NFL picks - they do not have to take college seriously to get a high paying job, and it’s pretty much like those NCAA commercials used to say, “Most NCAA athletes are going pro in something other than their sport.” So, even if there were a way to give academic credit/degree for soccer or physical education activities, most athletes would prefer to earn their degree in another field of study. And, Bay, I would disagree with your assumption that most club or HS coaches are ex-athletes: in my experience, that has not been the case. Lots of frustrated, would-have-been college athletes are out there coaching at that level, though.</p>
nope. but what she brings to the table are those intangibles - leadership, working together as a team, time management. all of that goes a lonnnngggg way toward that first job. Not to mention twirling in the Big 10!!! She was probably on TV!</p>
<p>I never seem to hear about college runners or volleyball players being placed on academic probation. I may be crucified for saying this, but isn’t it possible that the average football or basketball player just isn’t that smart? And don’t give me any baloney about how high Tim Tebow’s GPA is. I said average.</p>
<p>Or is it that college runners or volleyball games are just never on TV or on the radio so you don’t hear about it?</p>
<p>I’m not disagreeing with you-- my point is that many student-athletes may have academic troubles. BUT so do many students who try working other jobs during college as well. </p>
<p>I will say that the rules currently in place to enter the NBA is set up to cause a problem in the college setting. To be eligible for the NBA draft, one must be a year out of high school. So those players who are expected to be drafted high enough show up for one year of college. It is very easy for them to show up for the 1st semester so they are eligible for the second semester. But second semester they quit showing up because they don’t have to stay eligible for the following semester— they’ll be in the NBA. Or at least that is what some of them risk.</p>
<p>Well, let’s see - of the NU baseball players who were my year, I know one of them who wound up running a program that taught baseball skills to Little Leaguers (my son participated in it), and then there’s Joe Girardi :-). But I really, highly doubt that the majority of the football, basketball and baseball players actually entered careers dealing with sports. In fact, several of my fellow grads run sports marketing firms, and they weren’t athletes at all.</p>
<p>Great. I find that ridiculous, myself. H and I used to kid our U of I friends who were getting credit for bowling about how it was clear evident that it was a lightweight school. It was all in fun, of course, but there’s a kernel of truth behind it – I think it’s embarrassing to give students academic credit for golf, sailing, etc. Those are extracurriculars. Should my friend the baton twirler have gotten academic credit for baton twirling? How about scrapbooking? Note that the top schools in this country, the academic elite, typically don’t give credit for golf, sailing, bowling, etc. There’s a reason for that.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’re being serious or sarcastic, but I don’t see what intangibles of team work and time management sports bring that couldn’t also equally be developed through other extracurricular activities (newspaper, debate, student government, theater, etc.). Therefore, I don’t get why sports gets idolized so much as a developer of those things.</p>
<p>Team sports gets idolized as a developer of leadership, teamwork, and discipline because it DOES develop those things. You are right that other activities can develop those things, too, but in terms of numbers many fewer people participate in them. </p>
<p>And some of what you mention . . . I’m not so sure. Student government? Maybe Northwestern was different, but everywhere else I’ve seen student government had nothing to do with leadership, teamwork or discipline. Newspaper, yes.</p>
<p>D plays a varsity sport in high school (tennis). It’s developed her discipline; I don’t see how it’s really developed any sense of teamwork, though, other than they are all buddies on the team. As for leadership, I don’t see it developing leadership in her either. She gets a lot more leadership from her volunteer work at a local museum, IMO. But to her, tennis is just a fun thing to do, a hobby, a way to blow off energy and have fun. It’s not some all important meaningful thing.</p>