Athletes have to juggle many things– from classes to practices to their social activities– it takes up a lot of time. But the primary reason they are at college is for their education. A Yahoo! article states that the top four teams that are in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament are not really doing well in the classroom. The article states that North Carolina is the only school that graduates 50% of their players, while the other schools graduate about 40%. When a basketball team has about 10-12 players– do the math–that puts the percentages in perspective.

What needs to be considered here too is the fact that a lot of these athletes from these schools leave college before they graduate to head off to the NBA. Another thing to note is the fact that this may be just in basketball, but not in all sports. I know when I was at USC, our graduation rate was very high, and many went on to graduate school.

I think that coaches and the athletic departments need to tell these athletes that they need to finish their education if they can– and then go to the pros. They may make millions playing basketball– but how long will they be able to do that? You can’t put a price on education– because it is very valuable and will serve you in the long term.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂

Best Wishes,

Karen 🙂