It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and by that, I mean football season. School has started, so high school, college, and professional football are all in full swing. For many Americans, the weekend is scheduled around football. High schoolers play Friday nights so families don’t miss the college football coverage Saturday. Then they relive it all over again and watch professional football on Sunday and Monday nights. It is a respected schedule in many homes, including mine.
I idolize sports stars and those that do work outside in the community as well as the field. In a way, sports stars are a different brand of celebrity. Their talent is in their physical prowess, but there’s an entire channel dedicated to them. Typically the most popular are wealthy, and news pertaining to them can definitely be sensationalized. Some athletes are guaranteed screen time once a week for several months for just their games and media coverage therefore makes them larger than life. However, upon the transition to high school to college, I began to see things differently.
In college, you can literally run into a Heisman nominee or run into the quarterback who won the nationally televised bowl game last year when ordering food at a popular place in town. Athletes are surprisingly human, and sitting in the same lecture together changed everything. They are human, but why do universities forget about everyone else?
From someone who isn’t the biggest fan of exercise, I don’t want to diminish the hard work that goes into the athletic lifestyle: it’s family, it’s legacy, it’s pride. I’m proud of most of the athletes that represent my school. Holding the school’s image and pride is quite the pressure for my peers that have to take the same midterms and finals I do. However, large four-year universities pouring money into athletic programs is about more than just athletes. Stadiums are multi-million dollar establishments and sometimes a primary resource of revenue for universities. The memorabilia, concessions, ticket sales, and branding all adds up to one of the biggest means of recruiting the next freshman class.
I can’t wrap my mind around the multi-million dollar industries evolving from institutions of higher learning, but I wish the same enthusiasm was in education. I’m cheering in the stands of a gigantic stadium knowing a good portion of my thousands of dollars of debt is going towards the upkeep of it. Is the potential of heartbreaking game losses to rival schools worth cutting money from athletics? Is the upgrade to the stadium worth the upgrade in tuition? Is using athletic funds to make up for the lack of state education funding an option? Is luxury worth making scholarships less attainable? Universities aren’t saying yes.
Maybe that’s why I can’t stomach watching my school lose games. Not only are we ashamed, we’re also thousands in debt.
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