It is very interesting to think about what is going on with the NCAA basketball tournament. The whole nation tunes in to watch 64 college teams compete over a 3-week period. But this raises the question, how are these athletes supposed to be focusing on schoolwork during the course of the tournament? The NCAA is an educational administration, yet they rarely demonstrate educational values. With longer seasons and more weeknight games, universities across the country are taking athletes out of the classroom. College sports have become so dependent on bringing in sufficient revenue that the administrators have forgotten about the educational values set forth by the NCAA.
Teams have recently been realigning more often to conferences that geographically DO NOT make sense. There is no reason that schools from the Northeast should be relocating to play games in a conference like the Big 12, for example. It is important to question whether these schools are actually looking out for the best interest of their athletes. If they were, then they would remain in conferences that consisted of teams geographically close to them. Instead schools are playing teams that are very far away, thus needing more travel days. This results in taking the athletes out of the classroom for more days, further lessening the educational values of the NCAA.
The NCAA March Madness tournament accounts for most of the revenue for the NCAA. A tremendous amount of money pours in from this tournament due to expensive sponsorships and advertising space. Don’t get me wrong; I love college basketball and especially March Madness. I have been following college basketball for as long as I can remember and can vividly recall watching the tournament at very young ages. Even though I love the tournament so much, I can still easily see its flaws and where it needs improvement. It is important to question whether or not these athletes are being given an equal shot in the classroom, not just the court.
As a huge college basketball fan, I tend to agree that while the NCAA Tournament can be arguably the most exciting part of the year for sports fans, there are several flaws that exist. Because of the intensity of every game, people tend to forget that these players are still student athletes and have other obligations off the court more important than scoring points and blocking shots. While most universities do a great job in educating their student athletes while balancing studies and practices, when teams make deep runs into April and get to the Elite 8 or Final Four rounds, these students are away from their classrooms for a large stretch of time, which certainly hinders their efforts in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this post because I really agree with many of the points brought up that exploit the flaws of the NCAA and March Madness. For one, I completely agree with the point you raised about colleges realigning conferences in a way that does not make sense. I feel that this is a prime example that highlights the shifted focus in college sports. Everything really is just about the money now, as shown by the teams that are moving conferences for financial benefits. Additionally, I agree and am intrigued with the point brought up that athletes in March Madness are being kept out of the classroom for extended periods of time. It intrigues me because although I too recognize this as a problem, it is hard to find a sufficient solution to this problem without altering March Madness completely. It is hard for them to not be missing time in school with such an important tournament in a city from their college campus on their minds. However, the ethics of academics should be put into question immediately regarding events like March Madness.
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