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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
College Athletes
With March Madness coming up and all the hype over college basketball I have been hearing a lot about the idea of paying college athletes. Between college basketball and football, 6 billion dollars in revenue are produced (New York Times), but the athletes see none of it. Being a Division 1 athlete in college can take up as much as 50 hours a week, and that commitment leaves very little time for schooling. I found this disturbing because college is first and foremost for education.
With the commercialism of college athletes the students can sometimes lose sight of reality. Jerseys bearing their names, and their inclusion in very successful video games both help to inflate feeling of self importance in collegiate athletes, but the truth is very few of them have careers in sports. Basketball players only have about a 3% chance of going pro after they graduate. The athletes that have the best chance are baseball players, a whopping 10.5% end up in the MLB.
I realize that college athletes getting paid may cause more issues, like bidding for potential students or uneven wages for athletes, but even with those potential issues I feel that paying student athletes would be a good thing. Because they cannot focus as much on their schooling, many athletes end up not being overly successful later in life. For the coaches, winning is everything. They do not particularly care if their athletes are struggling to find time for everything in their lives. Because of this, athletes, even though they often receive scholarships, often are left with large portions of their schooling to pay off.
I may not know all the details, but it seems to me that something must be done in college athletics. Whether it is paying their athletes or finding a different option, the current methods are not working as well as they should.
I realize that college athletes getting paid may cause more issues, like bidding for potential students or uneven wages for athletes, but even with those potential issues I feel that paying student athletes would be a good thing. Because they cannot focus as much on their schooling, many athletes end up not being overly successful later in life. For the coaches, winning is everything. They do not particularly care if their athletes are struggling to find time for everything in their lives. Because of this, athletes, even though they often receive scholarships, often are left with large portions of their schooling to pay off.
I may not know all the details, but it seems to me that something must be done in college athletics. Whether it is paying their athletes or finding a different option, the current methods are not working as well as they should.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Starting Young
In recent years I have begun to notice that there is a strong correlation between starting a sport or activity at a very young age and being successful at it. I was again reminded of this last weekend as NBC was reporting on the up and coming stars in the USA hockey program. The kids that we are told to keep an eye on usually live a life that revolves around hockey.
If you search "How to be a good hockey player" in Google, the very first page, at least when I searched, was a WikiHow that emphasizes starting young above every thing else. It says, "The younger, the better. There's a definite pattern — the better hockey players are the ones that started earlier", and its true, most players that end up in the NHL began hockey between ages 3 and 6.
While it's true that this extreme commitment may make people better players, I'm not sure it's the best thing for all the kids that are involved. Once you are in high school there must be a balance between school and sports. The kids on Team USA u18 in Minnesota practice daily from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to late at night. Their lives become centered around hockey, but the sad thing is most people will not ever be able to make a career out of their sports passions. As Ken Campbell of ESPN says, you have "a better chance of winning the Powerball or 6-49 lotteries than [you do] of becoming an NHL player." Then more surprising, those people who succeed greatly on Junior or College teams have less than a 5 percent chance of becoming professional.
I feel bad for a lot of the prospect athletes in the US who center their lives around a sport. Most give up a lot but end up not being rewarded for their efforts. In fact just by being born in America you chances are far lower than if you were born a few hours further north in Canada. I believe that sports are a great part of life, but it is wrong for parents, because it is due to them that their 4 year old is in a rigorous athletics program, to invest their kids lives in such an exclusive profession. Many people believe that they will be the one lucky person to get a spot on a team making millions each year, and a few will, but countless others will end up in more normal careers with their dreams left unachieved.
If you search "How to be a good hockey player" in Google, the very first page, at least when I searched, was a WikiHow that emphasizes starting young above every thing else. It says, "The younger, the better. There's a definite pattern — the better hockey players are the ones that started earlier", and its true, most players that end up in the NHL began hockey between ages 3 and 6.
While it's true that this extreme commitment may make people better players, I'm not sure it's the best thing for all the kids that are involved. Once you are in high school there must be a balance between school and sports. The kids on Team USA u18 in Minnesota practice daily from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to late at night. Their lives become centered around hockey, but the sad thing is most people will not ever be able to make a career out of their sports passions. As Ken Campbell of ESPN says, you have "a better chance of winning the Powerball or 6-49 lotteries than [you do] of becoming an NHL player." Then more surprising, those people who succeed greatly on Junior or College teams have less than a 5 percent chance of becoming professional.
I feel bad for a lot of the prospect athletes in the US who center their lives around a sport. Most give up a lot but end up not being rewarded for their efforts. In fact just by being born in America you chances are far lower than if you were born a few hours further north in Canada. I believe that sports are a great part of life, but it is wrong for parents, because it is due to them that their 4 year old is in a rigorous athletics program, to invest their kids lives in such an exclusive profession. Many people believe that they will be the one lucky person to get a spot on a team making millions each year, and a few will, but countless others will end up in more normal careers with their dreams left unachieved.
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