Sports should be offered as an academic discipline

In accordance with National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations, Division I college athletes devote up to 20 hours per week to sports practice in season with only one day off per week and a competition day that counts for three hours. In the United States, employees who work 20 hours per week are considered part-time employees; evidently, college athletes spend much more time working than any part-time employee. The NCAA has pondered for years whether or not to pay its college athletes for the hard work they put into their discipline. A better alternative, however, would be to create an interdisciplinary sports major that could incorporate athletes’ firsthand knowledge and prepare them for a career off of the field.

Realistically speaking, most student athletes will never make a living as professional athletes. In the Huffington Post, former Stanford student-athlete Emily Layden wrote, “There are over 400,000 NCAA athletes, and for the majority graduation is as far as sport will carry them … It is a part of the story no one writes about, and for which I was entirely unprepared.” Like Layden, many college athletes spend so much of their college careers training that they do not think twice about the bittersweet reality that awaits them, diploma in hand. Without a proper curriculum that trains student-athletes to use their unique experience to their advantage, these former idols are left helpless in a increasingly competitive work market.

At USC, there are many classes that could be integrated into a sports major. Many of the core classes for the broadcast journalism major, such as JOUR 303: “Reporting: Broadcast” and JOUR 310: “Investigative Reporting” should be required, but the major would also include classes such as JOUR 380: “Sports, Business and Media in Today’s Society” and JOUR 441: “Sports Reporting.” There are also plenty of public relations and business classes that would be beneficial. Even without creating additional classes, this new major for college athletes is entirely plausible.

Today, many former athletes continue into the business world after retiring from professional sports and college athletes can learn from the career paths these ex-players take. For instance, Mark Jackson, a former NBA player, became a broadcast commentator after retiring from basketball. Some of the most successful broadcasters in the sports industry are former players themselves with a firsthand knowledge of their sport; in this same way, student athletes can use their expertise and experience to stand out from other applicants. In order for athletes to be adequately prepared, however, they must be offered a major that integrates a wide range of academic disciplines and have their extensive practice times and additional workout hours acknowledged as credible major requirements.

Another career path that many college athletes can consider taking is the path of entrepreneurship. Student athletes are able to make connections in the business world that most college kids can only dream of, and to not take advantage of the opportunity would be an opportunity lost.

Tiki Barber, ex-NFL running back, is one of the many athletes to successfully create his own business after a career in professional sports. Following his retirement at the end of 2006 season, Barber created a virtual marketplace that connects athletes with companies, fans and non-profits looking to hire them. In an interview with Entrepreneur, Barber said, “During this time [of retirement], I identified an issue that arises with many former athletes. They have a brand and an expertise that they spend their entire lives developing as professional athletes that they can no longer monetize because the Giants, Knicks or Lakers are not willing to pay for that expertise anymore.”

In the Marshall School of Business, classes such as BAEP 553: “Cases in New Venture Management” and BAEP 470: “The Entrepreneurial Mindset –— Taking the Leap” are already offered, allowing the university to create a new major that recognizes a student athlete’s special skills as an academic pursuit as well as a hobby.

Entrepreneurship and broadcast journalism are not the only two paths that student athletes can take. Former athletes have become successful teachers, coaches, CEOs and writers: in virtually any and all fields, a student-athlete can thrive. But if we continue to treat our student-athletes like undeserving cogs in a machine, they will never find themselves thriving off of the field. Once schools begin to recognize that sports, not unlike theater and art, is a sincere academic pursuit when combined with the right disciplines, student-athletes will succeed both in a competitive environment and an academic one.

 

Morgan Greenwald is a sophomore majoring in print and digital journalism.