Do college athletes have time to be college students?

According to NCAA rules, collegiate coaches are only allowed to ask 20 hours a week from their players while their sport is in season and eight hours a week while their sport is out of season.

In season, athletes are required to practice at most four hours per day, 20 hours per week, and have one day off. They are only allowed 3 hours of competition time, which is often exceeded.

While a sport is out of season, athletes practice a maximum of four hours per day, eight hours per week, and have two days off.

This schedule as is leaves limited time for athletes to devote part of their week to their studies and leisure activities. What is often not considered is how many extra hours athletes are spending on the field and court for their college program.

On average, Division II baseball players spend 39 hours per week practicing and competing, and Division II basketball players devote nearly 38 hours a week on the court. Almost ten extra hours are being devoted to athletics when the NCAA has created a schedule specifically to give athletes more time to focus on their studies.

Although most colleges provide tutors and require logged study hours from their athletes, not much can be accomplished after almost 40 hours a week of grueling practices and games.

According to a study done by CBS, 10 percent of DII baseball players admitted to wanting to spend less time on the baseball field and 29 percent of DI women basketball players say they wish to spend more time away from the court.

While these numbers may not seem high, they represent a large number of athletes working harder on their selected sport than they are working toward earning a degree.

It is important that coaches, universities and athletes alike remember the reason why these athletes are attending college – to graduate with a degree.