School comes first

College athletics are exciting to watch. Compared to highly-paid professional athletics, college athletes are true warriors – not only fighting the clock or an opposing team, but also working hard to balance athletic commitments with the normal college experience. \nIU gains a big chunk of change due to its high-profile sports. Every men’s home basketball game racked up $285,000 as of two years ago, according to an article in Indiana Alumni magazine. Most of the athletic department’s revenue comes from basketball and football ticket sales. The IU athletics department has a strong incentive to push athletics over academics.\nEven when athletes’ celebrity statuses aren’t larger than life, American universities ask athletes to pay the price tag for athletic popularity with their academic performances. The pressure to perform is the same pressure that could create tunnel vision, placing athletics as a priority at the cost of a challenging academic experience. \nThe New York Times is one of many newspapers that consistently publishes articles addressing exploitation of university athletes. The media has raised concerns about the profit motives of the NCAA, which arranges tournaments that require athletes to miss a huge number of classes. While the NCAA limits the number of hours athletes can spend training each week at 20, those hours don’t necessarily include time for transportation or “optional” workouts that can take up several more hours each week. Some student athletes have to work hard to accommodate additional priorities into their lives while holding down the equivalent of a full-time job. \nRecent efforts of the IU athletics department Web site to spotlight the nonathletic hobbies and ambitions of our student athletes work against ongoing accusations by the media that universities continue to exploit their athletes. In interviews, athletes consistently insist sports are at least one of their main priorities along with friends, family and less frequently, academics.\nAthletes who enter IU on the athletic track may have to work harder to find the time to take academic risks and excel. As a member of the rowing team last year, I watched fellow teammates go so far as postponing graduation in order to give their best efforts to the sport. While committing to an extra semester of college is hardly unusual anymore, it still remains the job of athletic departments and individual coaches to help ensure that athletes’ eyes remain on the future as well as the immediate prize. \nWhile athletes’ academic performances may be lower than that of many other campus groups, they consistently out-perform other students in feelings of happiness or self-worth. According to the statistics of Richard J. Light in “Making the Most of College,” even athletes with demanding schedules make happier people. \nAlthough athletes often insist they do not need protection at all, American universities should help student athletes look beyond what may very well be the best years of our lives and encouraging them to take the academic risks that will allow them to excel in careers; where no one may be keeping score.