Could You Do What I Do?

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a college student-athlete? Wondered how hard it really was? Or if we’re really as spoiled and as privileged as everyone says we are?

Well, I am here to give you the inside look at what it means to be a college student-athlete. And a fair warning beforehand, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine.

For this first blog, I want to focus on the things a student-athlete has to handle on and off the court. And how one effects the other.

As a college student-athlete, there are requirements that you have to fulfill in high school. You must have had a 2.0 or above, an ACT or SAT score that matches your core course GPA on the NCAA sliding scale and must have completed 16 core courses.

For me, those were all easily achievable things in high school. But I also went to a top-ranked public school in Ohio, who was known for preparing their students for the ACT/SAT and provided AP and college courses. Unfortunately, not all student-athletes grew up in a school system that I did. So school is sometimes a struggle for them, even when they get to college.

But once a student-athlete has completed all of those requirements and signs up with the eligibility center, they are free to choose the school of their dreams.

Once you get to college, you are required to complete more things. Here at the University of Arkansas, during our sports season, we must be enrolled in at least 12 hours of classes. We must also maintain a 2.3 GPA in order for us to be eligible to play. If we do not complete those requirements, we are libel to sitting out until our grades and GPA reach those requirements.

So, we have school, as all college students do. But now, add 20 hours of workouts, practice, and individuals a week.

The NCAA has a limit to the amount of time that we are allowed to meet to practice and workout. Now when you look at 20 hours, it may not seem like a very long time. But when you add on AT LEAST 12 hours of class, any tutors that you may need, the time you need for studying, the time we have to eat, and trying to get a good night’s rest for practice the next day, you are looking at a very long and strenuous week.

Now, this is all just for our practice times. Remember, we are there for the school to make money, and for the fans entertainment. So, we play games! Now add all of those things from the last paragraph, minus two days. For women’s basketball, we play two games every week during the season- Thursday and Sunday. One of those games is a home game. For those days, we miss a majority of our classes so that we are at the gym for a team meal and team shootaround. After we finish those, we have about 2-3 hours before we play. Then we have away games where we leave the night before a game. So we are missing two days of class for away games.

When you miss class in college, the workload is tremendous. You usually have about three classes a day. So, when you miss two or three days of class, you are constantly in catch-up mode. And yes, we plan accordingly, and our professors work with us- for the most part. But it is so easy to fall behind. So now add up the hours that it takes to complete homework that we missed.

Overall, the picture that I’m trying to describe is not always a pretty one. Being a student-athlete takes up a lot of your time, and leaves not only your body, but your mind feeling exhausted by the end of the day.

We knew what we were signing up for when we signed our letters of intent. But it doesn’t make it any less hard for us. The point I want to make here is that student-athletes are required to do more than the normal college student and what we have to carry with us is a large load. But as hard as it is to carry, we are surrounded by resources and people who want us to succeed.

So, I pose the question: If you were us, could you carry this load without struggling?