Financial Policy: Scholarships for Athletes Thesis

Student athletes do not even necessarily 'give back' to the university with four years of attendance. Basketball players flee the ranks to 'go pro' and even those who do not go to the NBA may struggle and not emerge with a degree. What students are likely to show greater financial long-term loyalty to their university -- a student who excels academically and remembers college as the best years of his or her life? Or a student who does not graduate and sees college a stepping-stone to a professional sports career or simply as a place that discarded him or her because a sports career did not materialize as promised?

Coaches and athletic programs also receive huge salaries, because of the attention that is diverted to sports, funds that could be better spent in other areas. Lately, many prominent coaches have been drawing negative publicity for their actions, which only serves to sully the reputation of the university. Northeastern University was placed on probation for two years "and had its scholarships and recruiting privileges reduced because of violations in its men's basketball program," according to the Associated Press in 2009. The University of Connecticut has also come under fire for illegal contacts and perks it extended to a prospective recruit.

College students are often told to 'get their priorities in order' and 'grow up' in terms of placing academics over play. It is time their institutions do the same and channel the funding it infuses into sports programs into helping students who are poor, bright, and focused upon using the university's resources of knowledge. All work and no fun makes 'Jack a dull boy,' but sports at the collegiate level should be just that -- fun and healthy -- and not regarded as an industry, making money off of students who would not be academically competitive at the school otherwise. Given scarce resources, the opportunity cost is too great to spend so much money on athletics -- good students are lost, and alumni that care are lost, because their potential scholarships and places at the university go to others, who prefer the court to the campus.

Works Cited

"Northeastern men's basketball program is penalized." (2009, April 25). Associated Press.

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