By: Andy Belilos

Sentry Staff Reporter

In today’s college sports, academics are becoming less important and the goal for many is just to get to the next level and sign a big contract. This is a disturbing trend and, in my opinion, is one of the biggest problems with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Of late, many star college athletes have been running into trouble with their academics, and are paying the consequences. However, many are not. To me, it is ridiculous that some colleges and coaches value winning at the college level more than giving young people the tools to be productive and good-natured members of society. That is the true purpose of college, and that should be reflected in their sports programs as well. While it is no secret that athletes get special treatment at almost every school you encounter, it is crucial to punish athlete-offenders as you would anyone that does anything wrong academically.

For example, at my favorite school, Notre Dame, they have had problems with arguably their best player in both football and basketball respectively. On May 15 2013, it was reported that Everett Golson, the football team’s starting quarterback, was no longer enrolled in the school due to an academic violation. Also, the basketball team’s leading scorer, Jerian Grant, was reported to also not be enrolled at Notre Dame due to an academic violation. To their credit, both kept their heads down and Golson was readmitted to the school after a semester, and Grant plans to re-enroll.

This problem with academics in college sports goes much deeper than that. There have been a plethora of similar situations to a much higher degree. The most infamous of all of them was the scandal that rocked the Oklahoma State football program. There were academic allegations to go along with money issues, drugs, and many other issues. The academic allegations included:

• Tutors allegedly did most of wide receiver Dez Bryant’s school work during the season in which he was named an academic All-American.

• Ex-players claim that there was an assistant professor who worked at the library who would do everyone’s work. Players would allegedly drop off their assignments with him and pick up the finished papers a few days later.

• Two players say they once took a class that they never went to or did work for, and got A’s anyway.

While this is definitely not happening at every single college to this degree, it speaks towards a much larger problem. In a study done by learning specialist Mary Willingham, the reading levels of 183 UNC-Chapel Hill athletes who played football or basketball from 2004 to 2012 were studied. She found that 60% read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. Between 8% and 10% read below a third-grade level.

To me, this is shocking and something that needs to be changed immediately. Especially due to the recent emphasis on concussions and other serious injuries, many of these student-athletes will soon not even be athletes, and will be expected to fend for themselves out in the world. How are they supposed to do that with a third-grade reading level?

Another huge problem with college student-athletes is that they are allowed to leave school early. Not only is this contributing to the problem, it is also compromising the integrity of the NCAA. All too often, the top picks in the NBA/NFL drafts are freshmen and sophomores, signifying that they do not really care about their education, just the huge paycheck that they will get when they are drafted.

I believe that one step in correcting this major problem is having a requirement for staying the entire time needed to graduate for these professional sports drafts. I guarantee that for the large majority of parents, if you asked them if they would be prouder if their son/daughter showed them a diploma from a great school or their signing bonus, the parents would take the diploma.

This in itself is the root of the problem; these student-athletes do not value education for what it is. They see it as just a route to get to their respective professional league. I believe, that in order to truly change this trend, the students themselves need to know and believe that their education is the most important thing for them in college. Just reprimanding them or telling them that they are doing something wrong will not change their mindset that education is not important.