Sports vs. Academics

Sports and academics come into conflict a lot in middle school, high school, and college educational levels. Student athletes’ educational requirements are lowered so they are able to play on their teams. Athletes were required to only pass 4 of their six classes but a vote in March 2006 by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) changed it to having to pass all their classes. In some cases like in North Carolina’s high schools, coaches asked teachers to raise their athletes’ grades in order for the students to be eligible to play sports. Instead of the student earning their grade the teachers and coaches cheated for them. In college sports of the 97 basketball programs 20% of the players managed to graduate and 40% of the football players graduated. It is proven that students who don’t play sports have a higher graduation rate.
In local high schools sports are the most important thing. Education is pushed aside because the locals want their football or basketball team to be the best. In smaller communities the athletic departments bring in more money from parents than academics. Superintendent Terry Grier from North Carolina took a lot of heat from parents of his school district because he refused to play student athletes because of their low grades and bad attendance record. Sports in the schools are obviously more important then academics.
Wilson Sears, superintendent of Somerset Independent School District in Somerset, Kentucky says that sports have been taking over schools. Parents believe that becoming a great athlete is a way out of poverty or a quick way to become rich. Sears says "People look at sports not as recreation and play but as the beginning of an economic explosion for the entire family.” Sears argues that there are more academic than sport scholarships. He also says that there is a proper place for sports but not in place of academics.
I am not saying that all athletes are failing because there are high school and college athletes that are scholars. For example Ricardo Harmon of Paine College played on the varsity baseball team and received mostly A’s in all his courses. He says it was always hard in college to maintain his grades and be a great athlete. DeCarol Davis of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is ranked first of her class and won the Ashe Jr. Female Sports Scholar of the Year. She plays varsity basketball and averages 8.8 points, 5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. She is an example of a athlete and an exceptional student.
Academics and sports are important in one way or another but academics should always come out on top. It is a shame that this is not always true. Sports are now more than ever becoming students and parents’ top priority, but it isn’t impossible to pass the class and win the championship.


Work Cited

Beem, Kate. “Righting the balance in the athletics-academics equation: given more pressing concerns, superintendents don’t often get involved in overseeing interscholastic sports in their district.” School Administrator June 2006: 1-5


“Give me an “E”, give me an “D” (the education of the student athlete) The Economist September 23, 1989: 1