Second Rough Draft

A fundamental of attending a large university, such as Florida State, is attending sporting events and watching your peers perform on the field for entertainment. However, how do those peers perform off the field in their academic endeavors? Approximately 4% of a college’s student body perform in sports but fewer than 2% of all student athletes go on to play at a professional level (“NCAA Recruiting Facts”). All those other student athletes must use their education from college to start their career. In this paper I set out to discover the externalities of being a student athlete on their grades, whether it be positive or negative. The lifestyle for student athletes varies from sport to sport but overall has a positive effect on their education.

To be considered a full time student in college, one must take at least 12 credit hours. It is then recommended that those students spend 3 hours studying for each of their classes. This is already a big time commitment for students. Then you have the college athletes who have to now make room for practices and games. One article from Business Insider states that “Collegiate student-athletes may spend more than 40 hours a week practicing...” (Jacobs, Business Insider). With this much time being spent on athletics, it is practical for some to believe that these students are making sacrifices from their education to appease the demands of their sport. However, most student athletes end up graduating with a higher grade point average than their fellow peers (Gaston-Gayles).

Due to the high demand of their sports, most college teams offer their players tutors to keep them from falling behind on the road. Florida State is one of those schools. In addition to tutors for helping them study, incoming freshman players also get help from the older players on the team. This was the case for FSU football wide receiver DJ Matthews. “I had multiple people I could go to for advice and for adjusting,” he said when talking about his transition from high school to college, “It made things a lot easier and helped me feel prepared.” When asked if he felt football took away from his education, Matthews said that while it is struggling, its manageable and it forces you to have good time management skills.

DJ Matthews is a Florida Native from Jacksonville. The freshman started this past football season and when asked if he felt any pressure about starting as a freshman Matthews shrugged with a smile on his face. “I played on a 4-time state champion team, playing with talent in high school prepared me.” Matthews started in 4 games during the 2017-2018 season. With 6 receptions and 1 touchdown, Matthews quickly became popular on campus. “I was surprised people noticed me on campus, it’s weird because they see me as a celebrity or something,” he said laughingly. However, he didn’t let it go to his head.

Not only was Matthews prepared on the field, he was also prepared off. Being on an athletic team taught Matthews valuable skills that he could use off in the classroom. “Being on the team, I developed pretty strong people skills and I’m good working with teams. I use them in the classroom all the time when there is group projects.” Matthew’s claim of gaining skills from the football is what I found in my research as well.