5 College Sports Facts and Figures You Should Know
We are all used to watching college sporting events and cheering our favorite teams on, but do we really know all that much about the inner workings of college sports? Can we say that we know all that much? If you believe that you do, this article will challenge that preconception.
1. The Second Most Popular College Sport Is a Bit Unexpected
While it is hardly surprising that basketball far exceeds any other sport in terms of how many schools participate in it, the second most popular sport will probably raise some eyebrows: cross country. The reason, however, is simple: cross country with its 2,065 teams spread over the country is a very convenient sport for the schools that are unwilling or incapable of spending much to support their sports endeavors: it doesn’t require standardized stadiums or arenas, can do with minimal equipment and fields small teams.
2. The Chance of a High School Athlete to Play at a College Level Is Pretty Slim
Many high school athletes hope to continue their sports career in college, maybe even get a sports-related scholarship, maybe even transition to professional level later in life. However, what are the real chances of this happening? As it turns out, they are slim at the very best. College teams have a lot more sportsman candidates to choose from and have respectively higher standards. As a result, just a little over 7 percent (1 in 14) high school athletes go on playing for a college team, and only 2 percent (1 in 54) go on to play at NCAA Division I schools. So, if you hope to build a career on your high school sporting achievements, you have to be really good – there is a lot of competition.
3. Full-Ride Athletic Scholarships Don’t Exist
We all know about college athletes who get scholarships for their achievements in sports, but few know that these aren’t technically full-ride scholarships. In reality, the position of an athlete on scholarship is pretty precarious – it is renewed on a yearly basis at the coach’s discretion for a maximum of five years out of six-year period. What’s even worse is that you cannot always hope to use it to pay your entire way through college even if you somehow manage to stick for the entire duration of your stay – an average scholarship is about $10,400. So, even if you get it, you are likely to still need additional sources of money to pay for tuition.
4. College Athletes May Soon Start Getting Paid
For the longest time college athletes weren’t getting paid and, as a result, colleges were and are often accused of exploiting them – for example, the University of Oregon earned no less than $196 million from college sports in 2016. However, this situation is likely to change in the near future – the issue of college athletes’ salaries is being looked into and can be arranged quite soon.
5. Graduation Rates Are Unpleasantly Low
Statistics show that college athletes often treat their sports career as primary, with everything else playing the second fiddle. It is reflected most tellingly in the graduation rates among them. In 2010, the average graduation rate for the teams participating in March Madness was 43 percent, with six teams under 20 percent and two with the shocking results of less than 10 percent. As you can see, college sports often take up so much of one’s time that they leave little opportunity to do any actual studying. And the fact that college athletes have it easy and have a full right to forget about essays and lectures is a myth. In reality, the college uses their skills but gives little to nothing in return.
Being a good college athlete does cost one a lot – it requires a lot of determination, effort and time. And let’s not forget that when all is said and done, sports is a secondary activity for a student, the first being studying. This means that in addition to training and participating in sporting events an athlete has to prepare for classes, write original essays and do other types of assignments. It is, therefore, only natural for them to look for some extra help – for example, to purchase college term papers from a reliable site. When they buy a custom essay online or place an order for a term paper for sale, they effectively purchase time they can use to further excel at sports – and for many students, it is going to become a foundation of a future career. As you may see, being a college athlete doesn’t automatically absolve you from all the academic activities one normally has to carry out – and having some extra help in such a situation can mean all the difference between losing and winning.
