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Jordan Martin 1 Introduction Collegiate student athletes and their performance in the classroom has long been oft debated topic due to low graduation rates, gross misconduct and academic scandals (Gayles, 2009). There are researchers who argue that the discipline, organizational skills and time management skills that are developed through collegiate athletics have a positive impact on academic performance. “Athletic competition may help structure a student’s life and coaching may improve both physical and intellectual performance (Maloney & McCormick, 1993). Discipline, organizational skills and time management skills are all skills that translate to academic success and are often times skills that individuals may struggle to inquire without athletics (Aries, Banaj, McCarthy and Salovey, 2004). On the other hand, there are also researchers who argue that the time demand of collegiate athletics produce a negative impact on academic performance. The reason behind this thought is due to the amount of time that is devoted to athletics, which in return, leads to less time devoted to academics. While in season, athletes may be forced to miss class, tests, group project meetings and other academic obligations due to practices or traveling for road contests. It is important to note that in 1991, the NCAA and its members held a meeting and established the rules that while in season, athletes are allowed 20 hours per week for their sport with no more than 4 hours dedicated to that sport per day (NCAA). To go along with, the coaching staff is required to give the student athlete one day off where there is no scheduled event for their respective sport (NCAA). The NCAA acknowledged the need for out of season restrictions as well and established an 8 hour per week limitation. The NCAA believe that by establishing these hour limitations, it would produce an increase in student athlete performance in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to determine whether student athletes achieve more academic success than the normal college Jordan Martin 2 student due to the discipline, organizational skills and time management skills they acquire while being a collegiate athlete. The subjects that will be examined in this research will be collegiate student athletes as well as normal college students. These groups of individuals will range from the Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA institutions. It is important to incorporate all levels that participate in collegiate athletics as it will strengthen and help validate the study. Jordan Martin 3 Literature Review Collegiate athletes and their academic performance has been an issue that has received a lot of attention over the years due to alarming graduation rates. In 2015, 67% of Division I student athletes graduated from their institution, while in comparison, only 65% students who attended a Division I institution graduated (Hosick, 2015). Both Division I athletes and students who attend Division I institutions have seen their overall graduation rate increase 7% since 2001 (Athlete 60% to 67% and Student 58% to 65%). Although student athletes have seen an increase in their overall graduation rate, there is still cause for concern why the graduation rate is only 65%. Researchers have taken multiple sides regarding this matter whether it is due to the athletes overall perspective regarding academics or whether the institutions and coaching staffs are demanding too much. There is a group of researchers who argue that student athlete success is not all necessarily dependent on their schedules, but the athlete themselves. These researchers argue that the reason behind the 67% graduation rate is due to athletes attending an institution where they have more of a focus on athletics as opposed to academics which leads to lower GPA’s, higher attrition rates and a decreased chance in graduating (Adler and Adler, 1985). These factors are all attributed to an increased focus on athletics and a lesser focus on academics. On the other hand, there is a belief that some student athletes lack the academic motivation pertaining to their studies. Academic motivation can be defined as a student athletes desire to be successful in regards to their academics (Gaston-Gayles, 2004). The lack of academic motivation can be attributed to their prior educational experiences, the values/points of emphasis they are being exposed to as well as their current surroundings. A very interesting point discussed by Covington, Simons and Van Rheenen explain how today’s society of student athletes leaving Jordan Martin 4 college early to get drafted professionally and make millions affects the academic motivation in today’s student athletes. For example, in the 2017 NFL Draft there are 95 underclassmen who have declared for the draft. (Heitner, 2017). This statistic shows that these 95 college football players believe without a doubt that they are going to make it to the professional league. To combat issues like this, there are researchers who believe that the minimum academic standard for athletic competition needs to be increased to promote student athletes to be more successful in the classroom. The other side of the equation addresses the strict time schedules and time restraints that are place on collegiate athletes. While collegiate athletes are in season, their respective coaching staffs are allowed 20 hours with them per week for activities such as games, practice, film review, weight lifting and meetings. However, it has to be taken into account that the NCAA mandates one full day off from athletic activities; hence, coaching staffs are using 20 hours a week on student athletes in 6 days. With roughly 3.5 hours a day committed to athletics, many researchers wonder if there is enough time left to devote to academics and other social activities (Gayles, 2009). In a normal in-season day for an athlete, it is typical for athletes to finish their athletic commitment well after dinner. With this, the athlete is both physically and mentally exhausted which later affects their studies due to fatigue and exhaustion (Covington, Simons and Van Rheenen, 1999). The researchers are stating their belief that it is unattainable to ask the student athletes to be at their peek performance in the classroom when so much is being asked from them from an athletic standpoint. Today’s athletic landscape has also shifted which has put more of an emphasis and focus on winning. The pressure’s that the institutions and coaches place on the student athletes leads to an increased focus on their athletics at the expense of their academic commitment (Covington, Simons and Van Rheenen, 1999). Similar to their beliefs, Jordan Martin 5 Peter and Patricia Adler explain how student athletes academic goals and behaviors are greatly influenced by their involvement in their sport (Adler and Adler, 1985). There are numerous factors that explain why athletics inhibit a student athlete from being successful, but there are multiple factors that help student athletes achieve success in the classroom. Athletics help give student athlete’s structure in their life and studies have shown that the coaching they receive shows to improve their overall physical and mental performance (Maloney and McCormick, 1993). The structure the student athlete receivers in their day to day schedule from athletics is something that can be directly applied to their academic studies. With athletes having a schedule and understanding what is to be expected from them on a daily basis, this understanding helps them with their academics in the sense that they know what needs to be completed and when. Covington, Simons and Van Rheenen explain how athletic success requires the student athlete to be a hard worker, determined, possess the ability to concentrate and being disciplined in their craft and believe all of these traits transfer over to the classroom (Covington, Simons and Van Rheenen, 1999). It was discussed earlier how the impact of professional leagues and the opportunity to play professionally affects the academic motivation of student athletes. However, Gaston-Gayles believes that student athletes who aspire to compete professionally also have high aspirations to obtain a college degree (Gaston-Gayles, 2004). To accommodate the student athlete, many institutions offer tutoring and other academic services that are not available to other students. Often times, these academic help sessions are mandatory and required by the head coach of the team. Jordan Martin 6 Methodological Plan As discussed in the introduction, the purpose of this study is to determine whether collegiate student athletes are more likely to be successful academically as compared to a typical college student due to the to the discipline, organizational skills and time management skills they acquire while being a collegiate athlete. Reviewing past literature regarding this matter help establish a general background and provided ideas of the best way to go about researching this issue. The subjects of this study will include collegiate student athletes and typical college students. I am defining a collegiate student athlete as someone who is currently playing a collegiate sport. A typical college student is being defined as someone who does not participate in any of the athletics teams the institution offers. The subjects will be selected from institutions that compete on the Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA level. It is important to select subjects from all levels to help validate the research. The research would have the potential to be skewed if the subjects were selected from only one of the levels. In the selection process of selecting institutions from the Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA level, the schools will be selected at random and by their location. It is essential that there are schools selected from all over the country and not limited to a specific region. The first sample will consist of the student athletes while the second sample will consist of the typical college students. Within the sample will include the student athlete and typical college student’s GPA as well as a questionnaire. The data gathering process should be rather quick as obtaining a GPA is not generally time consuming as well as filling out a short questionnaire. In all, it should take the student Jordan Martin 7 athlete/college student roughly 5 minutes to complete the questionnaire. However, it is important they are not rushed in the process and therefore if there is more time that is needed, it will be given. The questionnaires will be completed on the campuses in which the institution was selected. The method for collecting the data will involve a questionnaire. On the questionnaire, the student athlete and typical college student will be asked a series of 10 questions and be able to answer using a 1 to 5 scale. On the scale, five means strongly agree, 4 means agree, 3 means neutral, 2 means disagree and 1 means strongly disagree. The questions will be centered on the individual’s academic motivation, hours per week spent studying and whether the individuals have the necessary resources to be successful academically. To go along with this, there will be a note section attached under each question if the individual would like to add a comment regarding the question or their answer. I believe it is important to make sure the subject has the ability to express all of their thoughts during this study. Once the data has been gathered, the analyzation process begins. As it pertains to the GPA, the data will be split up into columns and then averaged out. This average will determine the average student athlete GPA as well as the average typical college student GPA. With this, I will also break up the data by regions (East, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest) to see if there is any correlation between the regions. After the GPA has been calculated, I will analyze the questionnaires. The questionnaires will be analyzed using a composite score. For example, the highest composite score attainable is 50 (10x5) and that score determines the college athletes and typical college students means to be academically successful. This data will be gathered and entered on an Excel spreadsheet where the format will be clear and understandable by the reader. I do not believe there are any special circumstances that are relevant regarding my research. Jordan Martin 8 Ethics Statement The ethical concern regarding my search is student athletes and typical college students fear of their GPA and their questionnaire responses being seen by the public. Prior to the data collection process, subjects will be required to sign a consent form and it will be assured to the subjects that their GPA and responses will be confidential and not seen by anyone else. Assuring the subjects comfort in answering honestly is of the upmost importance as it pertains to this study. Emphasizing the integrity of this study will help give the subjects more confidence in answering truthfully. Jordan Martin 9 Statement of Limitations One of the limitations of this study is determining whether the GPA of the student athlete is a direct reflection of the time commitment they have to their sport. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell what the student athletes GPA if they played a sport versus if they did not play a sport. With this, it is very difficult to determine what effect playing a collegiate sport has on a student athlete whether it be positive or negative. In my research, a positive effect would lead to a higher GPA while a negative effect would lead to a lower GPA. With there being no way to determine whether playing a collegiate sport has a positive or negative effect on student athletes, generalizations are forced to be made to group scores together. The same limitations that apply to student athletes also apply to the typical college students. From the data, there is no way to tell whether playing a collegiate sport has a positive or negative impact on typical college students. The third limitation involved in this study involves the composite score that is composed from the answers of the questionnaire. Although the score helps determine the means to be academically successful, it is understood that every individual’s situation is different and that outside factors that are uncontrollable may affect the score. Jordan Martin 10 Reference Page Gaston-Gayles, J., Hu, S. (2009). The Influence of Student Engagement and Sport Participation on College Outcomes among Division 1 Student Athletes. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(3), 315-333. Gaston-Gayles, J. (2004). Examining Academic and Athletic Motivation among Student Athletes at a Division 1 University. Journal of College Student Development, 45(1), 75-83. Adler, P. A., Adler, P. (1985). From Idealism to Pragmatic Detachment: The Academic Performance of College Athletes. Sociology of Education, 58(4), 241-250. Aries, E., Banaj, R. M., McCarthy, D., & Salovey, P. (2004). A Comparison of Athletes and Non- Athletes at Highly Selective Colleges: Academic Performance and Personal Development. Research in Higher Education, 45(6), 577-600. Covington, V. M., Van Rheenen, D., & Simons, D. H. (1999) Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete. Journal of College Student Development, 40(2), 151-161. Hosick, M.B. (2015, November 4). Graduation Success Rate Continues to Climb. Retrieved April 25, 2017. Heitner, D. (2017, January 18). Roughly 100 Underclassmen Will Declare For 2017 NFL Draft. Retrieved April 25, 2017. NCAA. 20 Hour Rule Document. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
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REWORDING
STUDENT NAME:
INSTITUTION NAME:

INTRODUCTION
From time in memorial discussions and great arguments have taken place over the whole
concept of collegiate athletes and their classroom performance. This has been due to the low
graduation rate, gross misconduct and academic scandals (Gayle’s, 2009). However there are
those that argue these athletics are of great benefit to student positively as they develop
discipline, organizational skills and academic performance. They argue that via athletics the
students are able to manage their time and are very resourceful as it brings about academic
success and sometimes comes with more beneficial skills that would otherwise have not been
acquired had they not in some of the sport activities (Maloney and McCormick, 1993).

However there are those that oppose this ideology. They believe that being involved in
athletic activities has negative influence to a student in regards to their academics. They argue
that these students miss tests, classes and all manner of academic duties simply because they are
involved in an athletic team. Due to this constant arguments the NCAA held in meeting in the
year 1991 to come up with amicable solutions to the debates. They decided that:
-

Athletes are only allowed 20 hours per week for their sport with no more than 4 hours
dedicated to the sport per day.
Coaching stuff is required to give students athlete one day off where there is no
scheduled event for their respective sport.
8 hours per week limitation on out season restrictions.

The whole purpose that NCAA was trying to investigate was whether the athlete students
would improve their academic performance from the discipline, organizational skills and time
management skills they acquired from these sporting activities. The examination will be done on
both athletics students and the normal students. These groups of individuals will range from the
Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 and NAIA institutions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The g...


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