As we go to our new classes, we’re sure to see students in athletic uniforms. Most of us can’t help but envy them for their “advantageous college lives,” but we tend to overlook their doubled commitment and halved time.
Perhaps the biggest misconception about student-athletes is that they’re walking dollar signs—that is, they’re all living off of scholarship money.
The term “student-athletes” implies that students who play college sports are engaged in a secondary activity that gives them the chance to enhance their education. Their status, as the term suggests, is essentially the same as members of the debate team or the band. As the NCAA puts it, “Student-athletes must be students first.”
“I know for a fact that many of my peers assumed that I had an athletic scholarship just because I was on the swim team,” said former swimmer Parker Sheppard, a non-scholarship-receiving sophomore exercise and sports science major.
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), only about two percent of high school athletes are awarded athletic scholarships to compete in college.
“As an NCAA Division II member, NSU’s athletic program is based on a partial-scholarship model that administers athletic-based financial aid,” said Kelley Kish, associate director of athletics.
Very few of the 110,000-plus student-athletes competing for the NCAA in Division II receive athletics grants that cover all of their expenses. Most student-athletes rely on other sources, like academic scholarships, loans and financial aid, to cover their school expenses—just like other students.
To clear up this misconception, we must consider the athletes’ time, effort and commitment to see if they’re really getting what they deserve.
Even upon receiving an athletic scholarship, student-athletes are not guaranteed the scholarship for the full four years. Just like academic scholarships, the scholarship is conditional, and they must work hard to maintain it. Requirements include maintaining a certain GPA.
The head coach of each sport, with consideration of team needs and team size, determines the scholarship amounts for student-athletes, as long as they don’t exceed the available amount allotted to their sport.
“Our administration challenges each head coach to have a program that allows student-athletes to graduate from NSU while competing for championships and living out the core values of NSU and the Athletics Department,” said Kish.
In reality, student-athletes don’t wake up at 5 a.m. to go to practice everyday for the money they’re getting, nor do they give up their breaks to train for the reputation or the prestige. What makes the hours of practice and pain worthwhile is the chance to be a part of something big that helps these student-athletes reach their goals.
“Although I was a non-scholarship-receiving swimmer, my motive was the love of the sport, and I just wanted to be part of a team that enjoyed swimming just as much as I did,” said Sheppard.
The common perceptions of athletes in universities are very different from real life. Even though their team uniforms solve the problem of deciding what to wear every morning, the rest of their day is pretty much like yours and mine.
