"Big Time" (Sports in schools and onwards)
"Big Time"
Introduction
Schools are introducing and encouraging students to join their sports program. It is to influence students and to improve their skills in playing, develop confidence and develop good values in sportsmanship. There are many advantages in joining sports. Sports offer many benefits to students and with sports a person would learn many things that he or she can apply and use to in real life. Not only that, but it would also make you get in good shape. You would learn the value of hardworks, discipline, teamwork, commitment, fair play, and at the same time can save the student money if one can get scholarship. And if that person becomes a superstar, there is a change he can make lots of money as a professional.
There are many athletes in our world today. There are those that are classified as good athletes and the bad athletes. The good athletes are those who consign themselves to the game they're playing, at the same time keeping their good values intact and of course maintaining their academic performance and grades. The bad ones are those whose head became "big" enough to fit to a door that they would become so boastful, become so conceited and very proud. These people are usually the types who would get caught in the web of drugs, frequent partying, alcohol, sex, addiction, greed, corruption and would sooner become deprived of the education they deserve. These actions would lead students to get suspended, dropped out or even banned from the school or worse, not being able to graduate at all.
But unfortunately, there are those bad athletes who are so good in hiding that they manage to keep their doings silent and not emerge to the public. This usually what the school's administrations common problem. Most of them are not aware what their students were doing and resorting to.
But these people are not to be blamed completely. One should understand and realize that it's not easy to be an athlete and a student at the same time. For one, we have the training and work out to do in order for us to be in good shape and improve performance in playing a game. Then, there is also the school to consider, we of course need to study and keep up with our grades. We have to work hard to keep both because if we lose one of it, then the possibility of failing totally and being suspended is at stake.
Definition
According to Wikepedia, athletics or sports are consists of a normal physical activity or skill carried out under a publicly agreed set of rules, and with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence and merit, for the development and improvement of skill, or some combination of these. The difference of purpose is what characterizes sport, combined with the notion of individual (or team) skill or prowess. The world athletics is derived from the Greek word "athlos" meaning "contest". Thus the definition as the collection of sport events.
History of Sports
The progress of sport in all parts of history can impart knowledge to us about the great deal of social changes, and about the physical world of sport itself.
There are many modern findings in France, Africa and Australia of cave art from prehistory which provide evidence and proofs of ritual ceremonial behavior and activities. Some of these sources and origins date from over 30,000 years ago, as established by carbon dating. While there is inadequate direct evidence of sport from these sources, it is rational to extrapolate or infer that there was some activity at these times similar to sport.
There are artifacts and structures which imply that Chinese people engaged in activities which meet our definition of sport as early as 4000 B.C. Gymnastics materialized to have been a famous and popular sport in China's past. Monuments to the Pharaohs specify that a range of sports were well developed and synchronized several thousand of years ago.
A wide variety of sports were already inaugurated at the time of the Ancient Greece. Wrestling, running, boxing, javelin, discus throwing and chariot racing were ubiquitous. This insinuates that the military culture of Greece was an influence on the progress and improvement of its sports or athletics and vice versa. The Olympic Games were held every four years in ancient Greece, at a small village in Pelopponisos called Olympia.
Sport has been gradually more systematized and synchronized from the time of the Ancient Olympics up to the present century. Actions and activities needed for food and continued existence or the survival of a person became regulated activities done for pleasure and competition on an increasing scale, e.g. hunting, fishing, and horticulture. The industrial revolution and mass production brought increased leisure which allowed increases in spectator sports, less exclusivity in sports, and greater accessibility. These trends are unrelenting with the advent of mass media and global communication. Professionalism became dominant, further adding to the increase in sport's fame and popularity.
History of Sports in Schools
While anthropologist would remind us that games go back to the earliest history of the human race, and that even animals play, a less reticent origin of athletics in schools may be found beyond the college walls of colonial and revolutionary days in the pioneer life of the colonists and the earlier citizens of the Republic. A game of football is documented in Virginia as early as 1609. In New England and the Middle Atlantic colonies it is to such facets of the community life as market days, barn-raisings, and husking that ...
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History of Sports in Schools
While anthropologist would remind us that games go back to the earliest history of the human race, and that even animals play, a less reticent origin of athletics in schools may be found beyond the college walls of colonial and revolutionary days in the pioneer life of the colonists and the earlier citizens of the Republic. A game of football is documented in Virginia as early as 1609. In New England and the Middle Atlantic colonies it is to such facets of the community life as market days, barn-raisings, and husking that the seeker for the origins of athletic sports must turn. The New England thanksgiving custom of men kicking a football about their backyards bears little façade to a team game. The participants in exertions were generally younger men, although occasionally older persons engaged in them. With the growth of social organizations of various kinds and the rise of militia companies, rivalry between such bodies led naturally to the assessment of athletic skills and this to a façade of group contests, which however, exerted little if any influence upon the life of colleges and schools.
COLLEGE GAMES AND CONTESTS
Such contests as have just been mentioned were basically of the people. In colonial days, the young man who ensues from school to college and who thus entered the life of learning and scholarship thereby set himself apart from his friends and neighbors. Before 1800, he was ostensibly given little to such lenience and diversion as they pursued. A man known to be especially gifted in this way was thereby belittled in public estimation. If he was known to make much of it, he was more likely to be despised. It was taken for granted that he could not be good for much else. Brains and brawn were supposed to be developed in inverse ratio; strength was closely associated to brutality. Doubtless, the fact that a large percentage of the undergraduates of those days were intending to enter the Christian ministry had much to do with this approach, it was more than half a century before the discovery was made that Christianity could be muscular.
On the other hand, intermittent attention, often of a repressive nature, was aimed to games at some colleges.
Most of the college faculties perforce allowed free-for-all fights between student classes, and it is not unlikely that, in the launching of freshman, tests of skill or strength had their part. So far as athletics were concerned, the century was portrayed in colleges by an almost complete absence of anything approaching organization, rules or what we now regard as team games, as exemplified from contests between sides.
The early history of a few of the modern college games can be traced with a degree of certainty. The twenty years between 1886 and 1906 contain the genesis of those defects which are to be traced tracked down in our college athletics of the present day. The enthusiasm of the progress at that time abounded a large part of the impetus which triggers the modern college sports and games. It must be remembered that athletics of that period harbored the potentials of both beneficent and harmful progress in later years. That so many of their evils continued persisted beyond the first quarter of the twentieth century is due to the rankness of growth which they are allowed to accomplish during the time of their most rapid expansion. On the other hand, since 1906 the value of athletics and their place in college life have come to be better taken into account and understood.
Investment Made by Most College Athletes
In college sports, it seems that everybody gets paid except the athlete. That's a raw deal. The players endows with the labor that produces winning teams, which in turn, generates heightened fan interest. As a result, football stadiums and basketball arenas are filled to capacity, translating into fatter operating budgets for the athletic powers.
Clearly, big-time college sports means big business. It is said that last year, the payouts for football teams playing in bowl games ranged from $750,000 to $13 million. Last fall, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cut a new deal with CBS for TV rights fees to air exclusive broadcasts all NCAA men's basketball tournament games. That contract is worth $6.2 billion and has been extended to the year 2013.
Boy, that's a free enterprise. But there's still a big problem with this scenario - the athletes are systematically barred from getting into the cash flow cycle. The NCAA prohibits college athletes from earning money based on their status as amateurs. Coaches can do commercials and nobody questions their integrity or sense of fair play. For athletes, that's a no-no. That is one that could jeopardize their eligibility and ultimately cause them to be banned from further collegiate competition. It is really bad to know that college athletes are at the mercy of ancient rules governing amateurism.
There are also athletes having jobs. This has become a hot topic in college sports in the recent years. In 1999, it seemed that the NCAA made a legitimate effort to impart some fiscal leeway, passing legislation allowing athletes to earn up to $2000 during the school year working part-time jobs.
In assumptions and principles, it's a step in the right direction, a move to be applauded but in reality, it's a cruel joke. Given the burden of being a college athlete, putting 20 hours a week at a part-time job is not very practical. The hours athletes would spend working at a job are already spoken for. Typically, they already spend that much time every week in team meetings, practices and traveling out-of-town games not mentioning the academics. And depending on the sport, the time demands during the off season aren't that much different from the actual season. That's why college athletes should be paid some kind of reasonable stipends, which would be made part of the awarded scholarship. Since they don't have time to work, it's the only way they can receive money without breaking any rules. With a stipend in place, coaches and athletic administrators wouldn't be burdened with monitoring potential abuses by school alumni and or booster club members. It is just a fair thing to do, especially for those athletes who come from low income families.
While it is true that athletes who are on a "full ride" have all the basics covered for school. That includes tuition, books, and room and board. Even so, the scholarship does not include a spending money allowance to help cover the incidental expenses such as laundry and bath items or being able to go to the movies or for foods.
The NCAA uses the term "student-athletes" in referring to the folks who play collegiate sports. They're supposed to be just like the rest of the student body; the only difference is that they play competitive sports. However, it is obvious that student-athletes aren't treated the same as their non-jock counterparts. A chemistry student going to school on academic scholarship would not be prevented from working part-time to help pay for incidentals. The same is true for all other majors who do not play sports for the school.
One might be wondering on why athletes can't get the same deal. Simple. It's because of sheer greed. College sports officials need to end their shameful hypocrisy. They should start giving back to those who help make the institutions NCAA powerhouses. The athletes deserve some financial consideration in helping to build a multi-billion dollar industry. It's just the right thing to do.
Exploitation of College Athletes
Being an athlete is not at all easy. You have to deal with different problems too such as exploitation. Once common exploitation is that being an athlete and a student doesn't clash at all times. We need to keep our good work on both areas or else we'll be banned from the school we're situated. You have to attend practice everyday and trainings. And at the same time you'll have to deal with the school works. Being an athlete doesn't mean that we'll be an exemption to other students. Still, we have to study hard and keep up with our grades. There are many athletes who weren't able to meet both ends because of the lack of time. If not, we can't cope both of them at the same time. It can damage our studies and our concentration.
Not only that our academic performance is at stake, our financials are also at stake. Not all of us are born rich. There are athletes who are poverty-stricken. So basically, the finance for room, board, tuition, and other fees are ever present. An athlete would be lucky if he is offered a scholarship. But not all schools offer scholarship to athlete no matter how good you are at it. In schools that don't offer scholarships, the players aren't under strict control. Athletes don't have to practice or play if they don't want to. These players are under no obligation to their coaches.
Drugs, sex, addiction, partying is also a form of exploitations in college athletes nowadays. In drugs, it cannot be escaped that people would take this substance to make themselves feel good, to make themselves active in the game. Being an athlete also means being popular. Of course the temptation is always around. Sex, addiction, partying is a source of temptations. If a person becomes involved with any of these things, it might just affects the athlete's ability and performance in academics and at the same time his sports.
College sports exploitations are racism. The blacks are often ridiculed by the whites. These people are often subjected and exploited by coaches, officials and the system itself. Most significantly, their talents have been prioritized over their education, resulting in many of them graduating unskilled or not graduating at all.
The "Flutie Factor"
Whether it's called the 'Flutie factor' or 'mission-driven intercollegiate athletics,' the outcome of having a winning sports team is showing up at admissions offices nationwide." -USA Today, "Winning One for the Admissions Office," July 11, 1997.The first documented use of "Flutie factor" had nothing to do with college applications. It came in a Washington Post article on November 29, 1984; only days after Doug Flutie '85 lobbed the Hail Mary pass that beat Miami in what has become the most talked game in BC football history. The aspect in this case was the predicament that Flutie presented to National Football League (NFL) scouts trying to verify whether BC's undersized (5'9", 176-pound) quarterback could rationalize the money a professional team would need to pay for his services.
By the time the term made its July 1997 appearance in USA Today in what has become its "classic" form-linked to boosts in applications-the newspaper was able to assert that "Boston College's example is so widely known in admissions circles, it's called the Doug Flutie factor. The surge in interested students was almost as phenomenal as the minuscule quarterback's legendary touchdown pass." USA Today went on to say that applications to BC "went up 30 percent in two years" as a result of Flutie's association with the University.
Successive references to the Flutie factor have quoted applications increases of 33 percent (in the New York Times, 3/31/99), "through the roof" (Washington Post, 4/24/00), 40 percent (The Diamondback, University of Maryland student newspaper, 4/5/01), and 25 percent-a gain achieved, according to the Christian Science Monitor of January 15, 2003, "after Doug Flutie threw a Hail Mary pass to win the 1984 national championship."
Whatever the percent increases or mythical championships attached to it, the Flutie factor has adequate authority today that some universities have invested in college football in the hope of replicating what they believe happened at Boston College in the mid-1980s. In a January 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story called "Football Is a Sucker's Game," writer Michael Sokolove said that officials at the University of South Florida were building a major football program in the hope that "the kind of magic" ascribed to "the Flutie effect" would then strike the Tampa campus. And they aren't the only ones. The State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Connecticut, for example, have both moved to Division I-A in football in recent years, and officials at both institutions cite the Flutie factor as a basis for those actions. Sokolove himself credited it with "transforming BC from a regional to a national university." So was the Flutie factor real? The answer is that Doug Flutie increased applications to Boston College, but not nearly as much as the public and the media believe or as academic planners at some institutions seem to hope in justifying the millions of dollars they invest in football.
In short, the term "Flutie Factor" refers to the victory of a team which would led the school you are in to become more popular and exposed. This exposure would benefit the school for it would increase the possibility of student's applications for the school. In order to ensure that you gain acceptance to a number of schools, it's important to apply to a wide range of schools that are reach, target, & safety schools. This factor can have a major impact on enrollment decisions. It is also important to understand the individual application process for each school by having an understanding of how may applications you will be competing with and what your odds are.
Conclusion
The competitions and contests, the pleasure in bodily activity, the loyalties, and the honor that form a part of that cosmic being called college athletics are the reflections in our college life, the characteristics that are frequent to the youth of the world. These and other less pleasing phenomena of college athletics will be scrutinized in the hope that those facets which are good may in course of time attain an unassailable prevalence over those which are less worthy to survive. There can be no question of abolishing college athletics, nor should there be. What can be looked for is a steady establishment through concrete action of a few general principles, to which all men would agree in the abstract. Even this slow change will be impossible without the sanction of an enlightened college and public opinion.
After some report of the development of the amateur status which, although it applies to all competitive games and sports, pertains especially to college athletics, it is purposed, first, to treat rather generally of athletics in schools, next, to discuss in detail a number of aspects of college athletics, and, finally, to enquire concerning the values that now inhere or could be brought to in here in this aspect of college life.
Therefore I conclude that, being an athlete and a student at the same time is not a piece of cake. It requires too much work and pressures to much to the student. It requires too much patience on the athlete's side and discipline. You need to balance both in order to succeed on both endeavors.
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