Gage Miskimen @GageMisky [Co Executive Newspaper Editor]
In many universities across the nation, a variety different majors are offered in various areas of talent. There are music majors, writing majors, and art majors. People have chances to showcase their talents in the fine arts as well with dance majors and acting majors. One thing that should be noticed is that there are no opportunities for an athlete to major in their sport.
Collegiate athletes should have the chance to major in the sport they choose or have a scholarship for. Football players should be able to major in football, basketball players in basketball, baseball in baseball ,and so on. People could argue this and say that this would offer no valuable experience, and that not every college athlete makes it to the professional leagues, so in reality a major in a sport would be essentially a waste of time. This isn’t true at all. A major in a sport would offer a variety of classes that would prepare a student for a vast amount of careers within the wide world of sports, while also getting credits for their actual practices since that does take up a lot of a student-athlete’s time.
There could be classes on sciences related to sports and athleticism. There could be marketing classes that have to do with different athletic products and brands. There could be a class on learning how to commentate and really dive in depth about the game they’re learning. Since a lot of professional athletes go broke, there could also be a series of financial classes teaching students how to handle money whether or not they make the big leagues or not. Being a student-athlete is pretty much like having a full-time job. In the world of collegiate sports these days, a sport is a year round activity. Once a season ends, players are back in the weight room and working out intensely everyday. They spend endless hours in the offseason already learning to improve their game by watching film and going over plays so they might as well get some credit for it.
Obviously, not all athletes would want to major in their sport. A lot of students have other passions and ambitions rather than playing ball and learning about it. NFL players like Richard Sherman and Andrew Luck, both from Stanford, had other interests that they did very well in, and they are both highly intelligent guys. Those type of athletes probably wouldn’t major in sports due to their potential success in other fields, but there are a lot of NFL players that become commentators due to a failed athletic career, or injury, or retirement. These guys could’ve majored in football to be prepared for their situation and become better commentators or having a normal guy who doesn’t play football major in football to become a commentator would make it more legit and it just makes more sense. Certain players who should’ve majored in football throughout history would include: Tiki Barber, Tim Tebow, any other heisman winning quarterback that can’t play to the potential of the NFL, and many others. These guys who didn’t last in the NFL but still have great knowledge and love for the game are perfect candidates for high-caliber commentators and executive roles in ESPN or NFL Network.
Having a major in sports would be a great option for those that would be interested. It would still be a well-rounded experience for the students who would decide to partake in it. It would still offer an endless amount of career options, and it could be a top major in the future if offered. It combines sciences, financing, journalism, and other fields all into one. A major in sports opens up unlimited possibilities in what one could do with their life.
