Thesis Question: How would paying revenue-creating student-athletes influence their academic motivation and performance?
Entry Question: Does playing a sport harm academic performance?
Source: Sports, Journal Of Intercollegiate. In-Season vs. Out-of-Season Academic Performance of College Student-Athletes (n.d.): n. pag. NCAA. NCAA, 2008. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This source consisted of a study among division one, two, and three student-athletes. The study focused on academic performance in the offseason of their sports compared to during season. The results displayed that in all three divisions of college athletics, athletes tended to perform worse academically while their sport is in season. The final aspect of the source studied the amount of credit hours taken in season versus out of season. The results showed that out of season, student-athletes took more credit hours.
This source, rather than totally arguing that student-athletes performed worse during the offseason, simply just showed data saying so. I think a reason for this is because the source is the NCAA, which wouldn't want to state that playing sports could be hurting a student-athlete's academic performance, because that would damage their product. This really makes me think about the ramifications of paying athletes, and how that could further hurt academic performance. This source answers my entry question, showing that playing a sport harms academic performance in-season.
The NCAA's study uses statistical proof to disagree with my first source. My first source's author, who argued that student-athletes shouldn't be labeled as employed, also talked about how being a student-athlete helped him out academically. I think I could do something in my essay where I bring up my first sources argument and put it into conversation with the NCAA's data.
This has led me to move on and address the issue of money, moving closer to my thesis question. I think I'd dive into some articles that both agree and disagree with the idea of paying athletes, and use their arguments on academic performance to further my thinking
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