Should colleges offer an athletics major?

Maybe because they're supposed to be studying generals, such as Lee, Grant, or both Washingtons (the future president, and the basketball team).

 

I would also point out that studying music at the post-secondary level is a very academic course. Music history, performance practice, music theory, sight singing, ear training - all very rigorous intellectual workouts, particularly at a top school. Performing, etc. comes after all of that.

I think if you could set up serious academic studies along those lines for athletics you might have something. But is that what most athletes want?

 

Yeah, I'm sure most football players and men's hoops players are going to college thinking how they can make a career in athletics if that pro dream doesn't come true. :

 

That was kind of my point, Dools.

 

Interesting idea. I'd rather see universities get out of the athletic business altogether. Let the pro leagues develop farm teams for players who want to make a career out of pro sports. Hold the draft at age 18 like they do in baseball and hockey. You pick someone and assign them to your farm team.

I know that creates a void for the many athletes who want to play in college and the thought of going pro never enters their minds. But its an insult that tax dollars go to fund scholarships for a select few who really have no interest in being there in the first place.

 

Division III athletics is they way to go.

 

How many tax dollars really go toward scholarships these days? Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't many schools gone to the "independent entity" model with their athletic programs, where most expenses are paid for through fundraising and donations?
As for letting pro teams pay for minor leagues, how is going to college to train to become a pro athlete any different than, say, going to college to become a lawyer, doctor or journalist? Should we abolish law schools or medical schools because the best law firms and hospitals poach the top students and the rest struggle at lesser firms or in the public defender's office? Should journalism schools be torn down because not everyone who comes out of them is good enough to work at the New York Times?

 

That's how college sports should be, anyways. Treat the athletes like students, first.

If the NCAA wants their sports to go big-time, then they shouldn't be whining when the athletes want a piece of the pie.

 

Agreed. If you want to play sports while going to school, more power to you. But don't expect a free ride because of it.

 

Colleges award scholarships for excellence in a variety of fields. Maybe sports has grown too big, but I see no reason to eliminate them entirely.

 

But aren't non-athletic scholarships generally awarded for excellence in the chosen field of study?

 

Baron and Mark2010:

Not sure what century or country you guys are living in or exactly what you are trying to say.

You must be joking with this statement:
"Agreed. If you want to play sports while going to school, more power to you. But don't expect a free ride because of it."

Ninety-five percent of athletes in the NFL and NBA got a free ride because of their athletic ability not because they wanted to major in psychology or business.

The NCAA is one of the most hypocritical institutions in the country.

College athletics has been big business for at least five decades and college football is bigger now than at any time in its history in almost all aspects. It's hard to find a game that is not on some kind of TV.

Sports have never been a bigger industry in this country and it only grows each year with everything from the Internet and social media to specialized training, year-round camps, etc., etc.

Yes the Ivy League has not given in to the greed of sports. Division III might be too small to matter to most. But they truly do get the concept of student-athlete.

For almost every other school, athletics - football in particular - is a huge part of what they do and how they are identified. Basketball players are recruited from sixth grade on. Pete Carroll started recruiting Matt Barkley in seventh grade.

Again, there is zero incentive for the NBA or NFL to start farm systems. They have a ready-made formula provided by the NCAA.

David Stern is only slightly less hypocritical than the NCAA by having freshmen play one year and then ditch their schools. What a waste of time and shame the whole endeavor is. Why make somebody like John Wall go through an entirely false process and then bolt after seven months of school. I'm guessing money is about 99.9 percent of the reason.

It was infinitely wiser to have someone like Moses Malone, one of my all-time favorite players, just go pro straight from high school.