The National Collegiate Athletic Association has nearly failed the student athletes in their care due to their own self-seeking motives. Botched regulations, lack of accountability, and blatant manipulation tactics within the NCAA support this argument.
To be considered an intercollegiate student athlete, one must engage on a sports team while also progressing and maintaining within college level academia. In the article “The NCAA and the Athletes It Fails” the author explains “And though the NCAA wisely mandates that student athletes put in no more than 20 hours per week on sports so they have time to study, its own recent survey shows that student athletes in big-time sports put in nearly 45 hours per week” …show more content…
Palaima: “ There are about 400,000 student athletes nationwide, and 99.5 percent of them will spend their lives doing something other than playing professional sports,” yet even with this knowledge the NCAA perpetuates and engages in a system that sets these student athletes up for failure. There is no other explanation for these actions other than the NCAA own prestige and monetary gain. Another source that touches on these issues is a documentary titled “Hoop Dreams” directed by Steve James; the documentary follows two young Black men raised in poverty. The only reason these young men are afforded any opportunity to receive a form of higher education is their prospective athletic worth. The institutions, coaches, and talent scouts only appear interested in the two main characters of the documentary as a means of prestige or income. This is made evident when one of the main characters does not meet the institution’s athletic expectations. The poorly performing athlete is not offered any type of scholarship to help him remain in the private educational institution. The institution shows no concern for his improvements as a student, and only seems interested in his athletic abilities or lack thereof. The poorly performing student athlete is cast out of the institution which offers only a petty excuse about how important funding is. The …show more content…
It is a sad reality that education is only deemed worthy or important when an individual appears to be a worthy investment. This is a blatant misuse of power and influence. One could only imagine the possibilities if representatives of the NCAA used their influence to emphasize the importance of education; social issues of race and socioeconomic strain would be improved significantly. However, student athletes at a college level are made to perform as the institution sees fit, and that is evident. The NCAA stated from a report in