Are College Athletes College Page 1

Are College Athletes College Students?

Skyler A. Rose
CIS 110

Are College Athletes College Page 2

Every day there are problems involving college athletes. Many problems are thought about when
you hear someone say College Athletics. Such as gender equity, staying academically eligible to play,
and also things like alcohol and substance abuse. Many people have generated stereotypes of college
athletes like they are more aggressive, anxious, dominant in society, extraverted, self-confident, and some
people could even go on a ledge and say they are just all around less intelligent. I know by experience that
all these stereotypes are just stereotypes. I have several friend that are college athletes one of which is my
best friend. He is one of the smartest person I know. All these things have become major issues in our
world today. I believe that through all these problems and stereotypes centered on college athletes have
built a sense of community for the student athletes.
What is community? A community is a group of people that have a set of characteristics in
common. Is this not College Athletes. I could have wrote this paper on college students but I believe it is
a community inside of a community. Although you could say that college students and college athletes
have a lot in common, I am going to shed light on some of the many differences between the two. Just
walking around campus you can tell there are plenty of organizations clumped together. Even walking to
classes you can see who belongs to which organization by which side of the side walk they are on. If you
ever see a huge group of football players together, you will see what I am talking about. The group will be
obnoxious, extraverted, and even try to show dominant characteristics towards each other. This isnt
because they are bad people or animals, its just the sense of community and brotherhood that they have
built around themselves. Its a sense of swagger that if you see it you know that they are a community.
Inside this community there are several topics that come to mind among the general population, how they
handle their grades, alcohol and drug abuse, their social status, title ix, and how they view themselves as a
person or their self-ego. There is several ways that I found all of my information. I did online research,
performed two interviews, and observed the community that I chose. I believe that through all the
research I performed, I still learned more about my community from the two interviews I had with the
college athletes. Even from observing my community I thought it was more informative then the research.

Are College Athletes College Page 3

The first thing I am going to talk about are my observations of the college athlete community. In
the student center at The University of Kentucky I realized that a lot of the football players gather there
almost on a daily basis. I went to the student center the Monday after UK played South Carolina. I choose
to do this so I could get a real sense of their ego. I was only there for about thirty minutes but I learned a
lot in those thirty minutes. I could see that almost all the people in the group were what you would call
full of themselves. I thought it was just a stereotype but after exploring through observation I can
understand why they have this stereotype. I also learned that they all seem to spend a lot of time together
outside of football. They help each other with homework, help each other with the playbook, and they
even just spend time together for fun. This tells me that it really is a community. The fact that they spend
time together outside of football tells me that they look at themselves as family.
The second thing that I did for research were my interviews. The first interview I performed was
with Kahnan Leslie, cornerback for The University of Cumberlands. He does not start but he is in pretty
good social status with the team. I performed this interview in the Nicholasville library. I decided to do
this here because I wanted him to feel comfortable and not out of place. I know Kahnan from playing high
school football and basketball with him. I really only had a few questions for Kahnan because he isnt
from a very big college. I asked him about title IX because I wanted to see how male college athletes felt
about the topic. It turns out in both of the interviews both of the guys said they liked title IX, Both had
little knowledge on the subject, all they really knew was that it was equally rights for men and women in
sports. I also asked Kahnan about how he handles football and school. He says that he gets help from
some of his roommates/teammates and the school will also help him find a tutor if needed. He says he
still isnt doing as well as he would like but he is dealing with it.
The next person I interviewed was Cameron Thomas, cornerback Tusculum College Tennessee. I
actually had no clue I was going to interview him until I saw him at wal mart. He came down for fall
break to see his friends and family. He asked me how school was so I told him how he could help me. I
know Cameron from playing football as well. Cameron was all state running back in 2012 season and

Are College Athletes College Page 4

2013 season. Hands down the best football player to come out of Jessamine County. I also wanted to
interview him because I know he had trouble in high school with staying eligible. He only go a 16 on his
ACT. So I had to know how he handles school and football. He starts corner for Tusculum and is a very
big presence on defense. So he told me his coaches really help him with staying on task and also they
helped him find a tutor so he would do better in school. I asked Cameron what he thought the minimum
GPA was he said a 2.5 because he has to do football too. He says he is lucky he got into to college with
his ACT score.
So the real question is do football players have it easier than regular students. With minimum
credit hours and the classes being easier. Should it be expected for them to have a lower GPA then regular
students? All questions that dont have 1 specific answer. All controversial questions as well.
I learned in these interviews that I performed that male college athletes dont really look at title
IX in a bad way, that to juggle football and school it is acceptable for them to lower their academic goals,
and also that they love their team. I also asked both of them if they thought college athletes by themselves
were a community. They both also answered yes.
Now, the final thing I used for this paper was my internet research. Here are the main topic I
looked for in my research, how they handle their grades, alcohol and drug abuse, their social status, title
ix, and how they view themselves as a person or their self-ego. Although I really couldnt find anything
on self-ego or how they handle their grades, I found most of that out in my interviews. The first topic I
will talk about is their overall social status from being a college athlete. Allen Sack said, It is widely held
belief that college football has been an effective avenue for social mobility. (College Football and Social
Mobility). What he means when he says this is that by playing football these players have become well
known in their community or even bigger in the country, like lets say RGIII was when he played for
Baylor. Many of these athletes, if they do not go to the NFL, will have more doors of opportunities given
to them because of the social status given to them from the sport. After they acquire a degree and go to
apply for a competitive job, the fact that they were a college football star could be the reason the beat

Are College Athletes College Page 5

someone else out for the job. Allen sack includes in his paper that, Sage and Webb provide evidence that
college athletes are less successful academically (College Football and Social Mobility). I believe this
has become a problem. Judging by personal experience my friends dad did not get a job because someone
who played basketball for Indiana University got the job instead. Both went to the same university. The
only difference between the two were he had a better GPA but the other guy was a college athlete. How
this is ok I will never know.
The next thing I will be talking about is title IX. This is something that is said by Lee Sigelman to
be, heated controversial over (Gender proportionality in intercollegiate athletics pg. 519). Title IX states
that no one person in the united states shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be
denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination, under any education program or activity receiving
federal financial assistance. This has been a huge topic since its coming up of. One side of the argument
suggests that men sports should receive more federal money for athletic scholarships then women sports.
The other side says the opposite. When conducting my interviews both of my players suggested it was
fine. One went as far as saying he was raised by a single mom so why not have equity. Much has
changed since title IX and well over 100000 now participate in women sports, but much is still to be
done.(Gender proportionality in intercollegiate athletics pg. 519). I really dont think there is much of a
problem now in gender. In the college athlete community most believe that equity is a good thing. Its just
the society we live in now that women can do the same as men. I think the title IX problem is an old
problem and I look forward to the progression in women athletics.
The next thing is how college athletes handle school and grades. There has obviously been an
argument for some time now on how college athletes handle school. Some come to college with a 16
GPA and the only reason they get to go because they are athletically gifted. Does this really make them
college students? I dont see how they could be labelled student athletes if the only reason they are a
student is because they are an athlete. In time student athlete has been switched to athlete students. Dean
Purda says in his article, among the unethical practices that have been uncovered are falsified transcripts

Are College Athletes College Page 6

by colleges, athletes receiving credits for courses not taken, and the financial and academic exploration of
athletes...(Are athletes also students? The educational attainment of college athletes). So here I am in
college writing this paper for a grade that a college football player may have not had to? Its just crazy to
think about in that sense. I dont believe it is that big of a problem now but the problem is that athletes are
wanting to be athletes first. I know in high school some of my friends were straight A students. Now they
have gone as low as saying its ok to have a 2.5 GPA because they are playing a college sport. I think
Universitys should hold a little bit higher standards for their athletes. I dont believe people should go to
college just to play sports but to explore education. But the NCAA is so greedy that players arent
allowed any of the money made by their jerseys, so I dont see education coming first anytime soon.
Finally, the last and single most important thing involving college athletes are alcohol and drug
abuse. There are many types of things that can be considered a drug. When I say drug I mean weed,
cocaine, steroids, and even cigarettes. Now there are hundreds of problems involving all of these types of
drugs dating all the way back to Babe Ruth all the way up to our Wes Welker today. Even though both of
these people are professional athletes, you got to start somewhere. Lets start with drugs. The most
common used drug is marijuana. 12% of men involved in college athletics used marijuana compare to
16% not in athletics (Binge Drinking, Tobacco, and Illicit Drug Use and Involvement in College
Athletics.). On the Brightside athletes do less drugs and also smokeless cigarettes. I think the main reason
for this is because of the effect smoking has on your lungs making it hard for athletes to be athletic. But
why should we settle with 12%. I think we should try to strive towards just a few athletes doing drugs and
that is it. The main issue with athletes though is the drinking. 61% of men involved in athletics engage in
drinking on a weekly basis. 21% of that drink with the intentions of getting drunk (Binge Drinking,
Tobacco, and Illicit Drug Use and Involvement in College Athletics.). Of course it is ok to drink.
Drinking has been an important part of society forever. I mean even Jesus turned water in to wine, but I
believe that Universitys shouldnt allow 21% out of that 61% that do drink go out with the intentions of
getting drunk. A lot of stuff happens when you are drunk. On several occasions professional athletes have

Are College Athletes College Page 7

been accused for rape under the influence like Ben Roethlisberger. I think to insure the safety of college
athletes, universities should try to limit athletes on these kind of activities.
Now through all the bad and good things about college athletes I still look at them as a
community because of how they handle their grades, alcohol and drug abuse, their social status, title ix,
and how they view themselves as a person or their self-ego. There are many ways this community as a
whole, I think can become a really good part of society. I know that kids all over the country look up to
these athletes in hopes to become them one day. Trust me I was one of them. All we need athletes to do is
to be good role models for these kids. When they watch ESPN they need to see how Athletes helped out
at a nursing home, not group of athletes arrested on DUI. Through this paper I have seen that although
some of the stereotypes are true some of them are not. I realized that maybe the research did not get the
whole story. Kahnan and Cameron both said that easily 70 percent of their team has done or have been
around alcohol and drugs, which is 10% higher then what the other research said. Is this a community?
Yes it is, all the characteristics match up, all the numbers show that, and even some athletes from small
colleges agree, like Kahnan and Cameron. We need universities to strive to make this community better.