http://www.survivingcollege.com/best-of-2012-top-moments-in-college-sports/
Welcome back! I have recently been watching a lot of college sports and began to wonder about the economics behind them. I do not play any college sports, but I have a lot of friends that do. So, I am going to look at the cost and benefits of playing a college sport and help you decide whether to play in college or not.
Benefits:
– Possible scholarship
– Make friends that share common interests
– Continuing to play a sport you love
– Employers do like college athletes
– Early registration for classes
Costs:
– A lot of time is taken up by the sport
– Possibly having lower grades because of less time to study
– Sports related injuries
– Less time to be with friends
– Harder to get involved in clubs
The average athletic scholarship for Division I and Division II is 10,800 dollars and that is offered to around 138,000 students (usnews). That might seem like a lot of scholarships but it really is not that many. I is a small number of students because there are millions of kids playing sports in high school. Another thing is that Division III colleges don’t even give athletic scholarships. It can be financial beneficial to play a college sport for a few students, but definitely not for all. The rest of the benefits are self-explanatory, but if you come up with another benefits please comment and share it.
The biggest cost to playing college sports is the amount of time that they take up. College sports have a lot of practices and games and travel. All of those hours add up and can affect the athlete’s grades and social life. Many athletes have tutors, which I highly recommend if you do play a college sport, to help them with school work because they miss a lot of classes as a result of games. It can have a negative social affect because there is less time to spend with friends and to get involved in clubs.
The highest cost in college sports is time and it is up to you to decide whether or not to play. If the amount of time that you lose to study or hang out with friends is worth playing the sport that you love, then do it. But if it is not then don’t. I have given you some ideas to think about when deciding to play a college sport, but it is your decision to make.
See you next week!
Stay in the loop 