Piece Of The Pie :: essays research papers

Piece of the PieMoney is an important issue for al intimately all college students. Very few are gilt sufficient not to have the financial burdens of tuition, housing, and food interferewith their academic initiatives. Some students have parents that are wealthyenough to cover all of the cost of college. Other students are given financialaid from the university that they attend. If necessary, students can get jobs tohelp differ the costs. There are no restrictions put on most students as towhere they can work, or how much they can earn. Most students have this freedom,but varsity athletes with scholarships attending Division I schools do not. TheNational collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of collegiateathletics, restricts these athletes from having jobs. Even though theseathletes would have a hard time make room for a job amongst practices, meetingsand games, they are not even given the opportunity to do so because of the NCAAregulations. These regulations are es tablish on the fear that athletes could beemployed by affiliates of the university, who could take in the best athletes byunjustifiably paying them extraordinary salaries. While this may be a validconcern, the regulations are most often carried out to light-headed lengths whichultimately do not serve the purpose they are intended to have. For example,Northwestern University has an aspiring young actor named Darnell Autry who alsohappens to be the starting rill back for the Universitys football team.Darnell was offered a role, based entirely on his acting abilities, in a majornetworks sitcom. The NCAA nearly forbid him from accepting this offer based onthe regulations against athlete employment. Darnell was eventually allowed toaccept the job, however, the NCAA did not allow him to get paid for his work.They reasoned that the cost of the flight out of Chicago was payment enough forDarnell. As in Darnells case, the regulations cause more problems then theyprevent.The prospect of th e money waiting for many athletes, like Darnell, whenthey leave college, leads them to abandon their education and head back-to-back forthe professional leagues. Some athletes, like Shawn Kemp or Kobe Bryant, skipcollege entirely. Kemp and Bryant both went directly from high school to theNational Basketball Association, and are currently qualification millions of dollars ayear. Other athletes, such as Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby,Terry Glen, and Tim Biakabatuka, all college phenomenons from basketball andfootball, skip as many as three of their remaining college years. The lure offame and fortune is making more and more athletes leave college early each year.