Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Paying to Play a College Sport?
Not many college student athletes have to worry about paying money to participate in their respective sport. Some, like us division 3 athletes might have to pay for a warm-up jacket or a pair of cleats but that's usually it. That's not necessarily the case for Wittenberg Baseball. Its players are being charged with the task of raising money for their own college baseball team in order to participate. That might happen in high school sports, but college athletes shouldn't have to raise money to support their sport no matter what division they play in. The baseball players are expected to pay $800 for the upcoming spring season, or use time that could be better used for studying, doing homework, or even practicing, to go out and get sponsors or donors for the team. That doesn't seem right to me. Last year was even worse when players were expected to pay $1200 dollars to play in the 2014 spring season. These players are paying 20,000+ dollars to go to school and another 1,000 to play baseball. Is the school that mismanaged that sports programs can't even afford to pay for some players to play for one season? It seems that way to me and something needs to be done about it.
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Luke--I like this blog: I think it's well written and provocative.
ReplyDeleteAnd I sympathize with your argument. Playing a sport in college is incredibly difficult while going to school, let alone paying for that said sport.
However, I think we should take a more comprehensive approach to money, school, and sports. That is, I think that both college and college sports should be free, and I think if one thinks one of those things should be paid for, it's only intellectually consistent to think both should be paid for. More specifically, the undergirding argument in favor of free college sports is (as you compellingly made the case): "If one has earned the ability to play in college, and puts all the time into play, he/she shouldn't have to pay for it." Indeed, this same line of thought can and should be held towards college: "If one can get in, and is willing to put all the time into studying, going to class, blogging, etc., it should be paid for." Ultimately, one shouldn't have to work--a min. wage job--to pay for more work--that is, homework, practice, etc.
While the two are both important, I think eliminating the cost of college is more important. Which is to say, when kids are graduating with an average of 36k in debt, I think that's what we should tackle first.
Once we liberate education, sports will be next.