Research Blog #8: Interview/Primary Source Material

For my primary source, I have conducted an interview with an old friend and student-athlete at the University of Louisville. I asked questions to see which aspect student-athletes put their focus on more, athletics or academics, and how the university's attitudes towards its athletic program affect their direction of motivation.  Because of the recent scandal(s) at this specific university, I was asked to keep the student-athlete's identity anonymous.  

When asked if student-athletes tend to focus more on succeeding in academics or their sport, the student-athlete answered "I personally tend to focus more on my academics, but I would have to say that 90% of my team primarily focuses on sport."  

The student-athlete followed this up by saying "I think managing my time is one of the hardest things for me. Balancing the 20+ hours of athletics, along with commitments through the team surrounding the community and academics is a hard thing to do. I always try to put academics first but sometimes that just isn’t possible."

In regards to one of the greater revenue sports, football, this student-athlete noted that "when I got to school my freshman year" when football players were asked what their majors were "they replied 'football' and that they never planned on fully finishing their degree but rather getting drafted before that happened."

Research Blog #7: Your Case

My chief argument/case is that the attitudes of universities towards its intercollegiate athletics has direct effects on student-athletes and their ability to succeed academically.  Each university puts a larger focus on beefing up its athletic's department and spend a significantly larger amount of money in its athletics than its academics.  They are focused on creating a revenue stream in order to become a "first-rate university" through their athletics, at the complete expense of its academic standards and chief principle of educating its students and allowing them to reach their fullest academic potential.

Research Blog 6: Visual

The first graph shows the amount of spending per athlete(blue) compared to the amount of spending per student(red) at a university.  The data is from the KCIA and clearly shows that there is a significant difference in the amount of spending per student vs athlete.  Universities are spending around 6-7 times more on athletes compared to students over the span of 4 years from 2005-2008.  The numbers continue to increase as the years go on. 

This second graph shows the significant difference in salaries for 6 academic positions, including the University President/CEO, compared to Football coaches.  Football coaches are making around 3 times more than the University President/CEO's and even more than deans and teachers. This clearly shows that a university invests more into and values its athletics over its academics.