College Athletics First?

Athletics First?

It’s that time of year again. It is winter of your senior year and you just finished up your college applications and you are anxiously awaiting the news that will soon change your future, for better or worse. You’re in the top tier of your class, great SAT scores, and you’re active in the student government. Finally, springtime rolls around and you walk out to your mailbox and the letter is there. You run into your house and scream for your parents and open up the letter. Much to your astonishment, they regretfully decline your application for admission. Disappointed and a little bit angry you go into school the next day to find that one of your friends got accepted to the same school to play basketball. You want to feel happy for him, but you know that the only reason he is going to graduate high school is because he helped his team win the state championship last year. So now you missed out on the school of your dreams just because an athlete was accepted over you.

Unfortunately this situation is not unfamiliar to many high school seniors throughout the country. Division 1 athletic colleges across the country should not lower their admission standards in order to accommodate athletes that do not have high enough credentials to get into the school itself. It is common knowledge that college athletes receive special treatment that regular applicants do not. These benefits range from fully funded recruiting trips, special tutors and class times, and to even special higher level team housing. Professor of History at Brown University, Howard Chudacoff, puts it best, “because of these accommodations, schools are suggesting that they value athletics over academics.” (Brown 1)

For years, academics and athletics went hand in hand at colleges and universities across the country. It wasn’t until a certain moment in 1984, when that all seemed to change. It was November 23, 1984 and an underdog Boston College football team was playing the...