In: Journal of Contemporary Athletics ISSN 1554-9933

Volume 5, Number 3 © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

DOES ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION BENEFIT OR

HINDER ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE?
NON-REVENUE SPORT ATHLETE EXPERIENCES

Amanda L. Paule1 and Todd A. Gilson2

1
Bowling Green State University, U.S.A.
2
Northern Illinois University, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT
Research has shown that varsity sport athletes in both revenue and non-revenue
sports1 often devote a great deal more time to their sport than the NCAA limit of 20 hours
per week (NCAA, 2008). Athletes face the pressure of succeeding on the playing field
while trying to maintain good grades and keep up with their coursework. However, can
athletes successfully balance the two areas of college?
The purpose of this chapter was to examine whether an athlete‟s athletic
performance acts as a benefit or a hindrance to his or her academic performance.
Interviews were conducted with 30 collegiate non-revenue athletes, chosen at random
from a sample pool of 9,231 athletes around the country. The interviews focused on how
athletes juggle their athletic schedule with their academic requirements. Two higher order
themes were established from combining multiple subthemes.
The responses from the participants fell into one of two categories: (a) academic
benefits of being a collegiate athlete or (b) academic challenges faced while being a
collegiate athlete. Results revealed that athletes acknowledge they do not have as much
time as they would like to spend on school tasks, such as studying, and their participation
made things more difficult. However, there were benefits to being an athlete, such as
academic services, tutors, and athletic scholarships providing the means to get an
education.
None of the 30 athletes stated that they regretted their decision to compete in
intercollegiate athletics.

Keywords: Division I, academics, non-revenue sport.

1
While the terms “revenue” and “non-revenue” sports are used in this paper to categorize collegiate sports, it is
important to note that not all “revenue” sports (e.g., football and basketball) are profitable at each NCAA
institution.
204 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

INTRODUCTION
Every fall, and in some cases in the spring, freshmen students arrive on their chosen
college campus ready to enter the next step in their lives. This next step includes the
opportunity to begin studying in his or her academic discipline. For athletes on these college
campuses, they are tasked with balancing their athletic responsibilities with the academic
requirements that all students deal with in college. Can athletes successfully balance the two
areas of college?
There has been no shortage of research examining the college experiences of athletes and
the results of these studies have been mixed stating that athletic performance has little to no
impact on an athlete‟s academic performance to participation hurts academic performance.
Wolniak, Pierson, and Pascarella (2001) examined this issue from a psychological perspective
and found that participation in intercollegiate athletics had little impact an athletes‟ desire to
succeed academically, learning for self-understanding, and higher-order thinking.
Critics of college sports have argued that participation in sport is detrimental to an
athlete‟s academic performance. Shulman and Bowen (2001) and Bowen and Levine (2003)
examined Division III athletes and their academic achievement. These studies found that the
athletes did not perform as well academically compared to their non-athlete peers. The
perception by some is that athletes focus predominantly on their athletic pursuits, and as a
result, they neglect or do not spend enough time on their academic pursuits (Simons,
Bosworth, Fujita, and Jensen, 2007).
Additional topics that have been examined in the literature include academic performance
(Adler and Adler, 1985; Meyer, 1990; Richards and Aries, 1999; Taylor, 1995), the college
athlete role (Adler and Adler, 1991; Meyer, 1990; Miller and Kerr, 2002; Sack and Thiel,
1985), impact of high profile athletics on academics (Sperber, 1990, 2001), an examination of
the lives of collegiate athletes (NCAA, 2008, Paule and Gilson, in press; Potuto and
O‟Hanlon, 2006, 2007; Ryan, 1989), and academic clustering (Case, Greer, and Brown, 1987;
Finley, and Fountain, 2007, 2009; Suggs, 2003). These studies all provide an important
contribution to the literature, however, a majority of them focused on big time football or
men‟s basketball programs or disregarded academics as a fundamental piece in their work.
When reviewing the previous literature, there is a noticeable gap. There is a lack of
literature focusing on big-time, non-revenue collegiate athlete. These are the athletes that
participate in sports at some of the most recognizable universities and conferences across the
United States, but do not receive near the amount of attention or media coverage as their
football, men‟s basketball, and, in some cases, women‟s basketball peers. Examples of these
sports include: golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, and volleyball to name a few.
However, these athletes are especially important when examining whether athletic
participation is a benefit of hindrance to an athlete‟s academic performance. These athletes,
for the most part, do not have large professional franchises similar to the NFL, NBA, or
WNBA to play for after college. These athletes‟ participation in sport is terminal once college
in complete; thus, gaining a college education that prepares the athletes for the real world is
extremely important.
Even though the NCAA has limits on the amount of time an athlete can practice or spend
time on their sport (20 hours), it does not mean athletes are spending more than that amount
of time on athletic pursuits. In fact, there has been a renewed discussion over the amount of
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 205

time athletes are spending on their sport. A 2006 NCAA survey of 21,000 current athletes
(NCAA, 2008) found that football players reported spending 44.8 hours per week on their
sport. It was also reported that men‟s golfers devoted 40.8 hours, softball players 37.1 hours,
and women‟s basketball players spent 36.1 hours on their sport. Women‟s track and cross
country reported spending the fewest hours (29.3) on their sport. Every sport represented in
the study spent significantly more than the 20 hours allowed by the NCAA on their sport.
When asked about how athletes can balance the amount of time spent on athletics and still
focus on their academics, Myles Brand, the former NCAA President, stated “Once you get
past 40 hours, you‟re really pushing it” (as stated in Wolverton, 2008, January 14).
Even though the big-time, non-revenue collegiate athletes are not represented in the
media and the limelight as much as some of their peers in football and basketball, they are
clearly still spending as much time on their sport as those in football and basketball.
Furthermore, these athletes are not participating in athletics against their will. They all agreed
to be a part of this team and had an idea of what it would take to participate on a collegiate
team. However, do big-time, non-revenue collegiate athletes believe that their athletic
participation is benefitting or hindering their academic performance?

METHOD

Participants

Participants were all current NCAA collegiate athletes at major Division I universities in
either the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, or PAC-10 conference (N = 30). A total of nine, non-
revenue sports were represented in this chapter. The breakdown of athletes per sport are as
follows: swimming and diving, n = 4; track and field, n = 4; men‟s golf, n = 3; men‟s soccer,
n = 3; men‟s tennis, n = 3; women‟s golf, n = 3; women‟s soccer, n = 3; women‟s tennis, n =
3; and women‟s volleyball, n = 4. The overall sample was comprised of 10 males and 20
females.

Instrumentation

Interview Guide. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by the researchers and

focused on the benefits and challenges of being a collegiate athlete while also focusing on
obtaining an education. During each of the interviews, the researchers covered the same
predetermined set of questions with all of the participants. The researchers also used probes
when conducting the interviews to clarify participants‟ answers or to acquire more
information regarding a specific topic (Berg, 2004; Patton, 2002).

Procedures

Following approval from the Institutional Review Board, the researchers developed a
database that included athletes from the nine chosen sports in the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, and
PAC-10 conferences. The researchers gathered team roster information posted on university
206 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

websites from every school, within each conference, that offered the nine sports being used in
this chapter. The initial database consisted of 9,231 athletes. Each of these athletes was then
categorized by sport and received a designated ID number.
Two methodological strategies were used to achieve the most representative sample
regarding the experiences of athletes in non-revenue sports. First, the researchers decided on
using 30 participants and the target number of athletes from each sport as described in
participants section of this paper. The second strategy was to contact athletes via e-mail based
on a numerical random sequence generator ([Link] which was
then matched to the athlete‟s ID number.
Each athlete whose ID number matched the numbers generated was sent an email that
explained the goals, potential risks, and time commitment necessary for the study (i.e., a 15-
30 minute phone interview). Athletes were also asked to respond to the researchers if they
were interested in participating. Researchers waited one week to receive a response for the
athlete. If a response was not received within one week, a short follow-up e-mail was sent
relaying the same information from the initial email. If the researchers did not receive a
response one week after the follow-up e-mail was sent (two weeks from the initial email), the
researchers moved on and the process was repeated with the next athlete listed in the
generated sequence. Finally, any athletes from a university in which another teammate
already completed an interview were excluded. This process continued until the “quota” of
athletes was achieved for each sport.
When an athlete agreed to participate in the study, he or she was sent a digital copy of the
consent form, asked to read it over, and reply indicating if they agreed to participate in this
study and gave their consent for the interview to be digitally recorded. Once the athlete
provided their consent, the research and the participant scheduled the interview to be
completed at a time that was mutually agreed upon and one of the researchers conducted the
interview.

Data Analysis

After completion of each interview, digital voice recordings were transcribed verbatim by
the researchers and assistants (Patton, 2002; Silverman, 2001). Next, the first and second
authors worked through each interview to develop lower order themes using an inductive
method (Patton, 2002). After reaching a consensus and identifying “repeated” themes, the
research team was able to determine what athletes from big time, non-revenue sports
perceived as the benefits and challenges of participating in collegiate sport. The process of
identifying themes continued until all the lower order themes were combined to form the
higher order themes.

RESULTS
Two higher order themes were established from combining multiple subthemes. The
responses from the participants fell into one of two categories: (a) academic benefits of being
a collegiate athlete or (b) academic challenges faced while being a collegiate athlete. The
participants‟ responses illustrated the complexities of being an athlete and a student at a
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 207

Division I university. Due to the frequency and similar responses from athletes, it can be
assumed that their experiences are not isolated and shared by athletes across the country.

Academic Benefits of Being a Collegiate Athlete

All of the 30 study participants discussed at least one academic benefit they received as a
result of being collegiate athletes. These benefits included athletics providing a means for an
education, teammates helping with academics, academic support, athletics helping their
academics, and learning outside of the classroom.
Athletics providing a means for an education. Two of the 30 participants unashamedly
stated that they may not have attended college if it were not for their sport and athletic
scholarship.
Lisa (all names fictitious), a track and field athlete at a Big-12 university, was one of the
participants who discussed that she was able to obtain a college education because of her
scholarship. She stated:

I probably wouldn‟t be here because I mean without, without athletics and without my
scholarship like my family couldn‟t have afforded to put me through college and so my
experience would probably have to be back home at community college. And trying to
hold up a job and different thing especially with how the economy is doing it might have
been very difficult for me to even complete school.

Cheryl, a Pac-10 university soccer player, concurred with Lisa and felt that sport was
providing her with her education. Cheryl commented, “I don‟t know if I would have gone
to college. I don‟t know what I what I would be doing. I wouldn‟t have I think as good of
grades.”

For these athletes, their academic participation was a benefit because they did not believe
they would be attending their current universities or perhaps any university without their
scholarship. Further, Cheryl commented that she believed her academic performance was
enhanced because of this participation.
Teammates helping with academics. Two of the participants, who were both members of
very large swimming and diving teams, discussed the benefits of having teammates and the
role they played in their academic pursuits. Libby, a swimmer in the Big 10 conference, relied
on her teammates to give her advice with her classes, which professors to take, and how to
succeed in a challenging major. Libby felt that:

With some of my classes I was thinking about this Physics one and I have to take it but a
friend warned my that I should get a tutor right away because it‟s a really tough course
and sometimes someone will [say] don‟t take this one it‟s boring or don‟t take this one
it‟s like too hard or this person‟s an easier grader. So that does happen. Plus, a lot of
times, especially [with] my big sis on the team, she‟ll help me with homework and help
tutor me herself you know.

While Libby relied on teammates for advice on which classes are a little less rigorous
than others or when to ask for a tutor, Molly, a Big 10 swimmer at a different university,
relied on her teammates to help with study. She remarked that she and her teammates are:
208 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

In a lot of the same classes so it helps to study together and work together and so that
really helps because they understand when we can study because you can‟t really join
other study groups because some people in college like to study really late at night and
I‟m going to go to sleep early and not stay up until 2 in the morning to studying.

Whether it was going to teammates for professor or course advice or finding individuals
to study with, these athletes felt that their teammates were a great asset to the academic
success. They felt that this built in support system was a tremendous benefit that they were
lucky enough to have due to their sport participation.
Academic support. Academic support that collegiate athletes receive while playing their
sport and attending classes was mentioned by 11 participants as something they perceived as
a benefit to being an athlete. The athletes mentioned the benefits they received included
support staff, priority scheduling, grade check, and tutors.
Peter, a soccer player from the Big 10, enjoyed the fact that when he entered his
university as a freshman there was a set schedule laid out for him. He commented:

I mean coming in as a freshman it was pretty much set out for us and we had to do it. You
have a whole program where you have to get a certain amount of hours logged into study
hall every week, which was actually great. It helped really keep track of our studies and
our academic life. That was definitely a positive part about it.

Molly also discussed that athletes received helping in planning their academic schedules.
She discussed that the support staff:

Pretty much just kind of help me to plan my schedule and make sure that I am doing
things correctly and I am still on the right track to be... that...I am still taking enough
credits to be eligible to participate in my sport. And they also help me along if I‟m
struggling in a class then they will help me... make sure I‟m studying with somebody or
get a tutors or just help me with other skills...that or other ways that I can study.

Lacey, a Big-12 conference golfer, thought that in addition to a schedule was the fact that
athletes had priority scheduling, access to tutors and an entire building devoted to athletes.
She remarked that athletes:

Get to sign up for classes earlier…compared to the normal student body. We have an
academic advisor who does an awesome job. We just got a new one, he‟s great. He
handles everything for us. If you need a tutor, there‟s a tutor for you. Umm… we have an
entire academic building that only student athletes can go and study at. So, it‟s pretty
good, they take care of us.

Ali, a volleyball athlete from the Big 10 conference, spoke at length about the academic
support that she has received at her university. One of the greatest benefits she felt she
received was access to tutors and having an individual keep her on track. She stated:

Knowing that you can make a last minute tutor appointment and not really having to
worry „cause they‟re multiple tutors that do pretty much the same thing…If you need a
paper or a review or a critique you could ask one of the tutors and they could do that for
you, you know look it over, tell you, or mark on it.
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 209

She continued to say that:

I procrastinate and so I asked for someone to help me with that, you know, making sure
that I‟m studying, spending time in the day for whatever I need to where I don‟t have to
miss practice.

It was not only the access to tutors that some of the athletes discussed as a benefit.
Mitchell, a golfer from the SEC, talked about the academic facilities that athletes had access
to and his feelings on them. He commented:

We have an entire facility devoted to us – academic service program, tutors for any
class… computer lab, separate computer lab link for our math department. The regular
students have to go to a certain math lab, but we can go to our facility and it is linked to
that exact lab. So we don‟t have any hindrances in studying.

In addition to academic support staff, tutors, and academic facilities for athletes, Damien,
a men‟s tennis player from the Big 12, felt that he the received support from the university as
a whole. He stated, “I would say I get tremendous help from the university in every way
possible. You know, people give you a little more respect just because you play a DI sport a
lot of times.”
Overall, most of the participants perceived and articulated the benefits they have received
by being an athlete at their university. Many of the athletes spoke about access to tutors,
academic support staff, priority scheduling of classes, and university support.
Athletics helping their academics. Did the athletes perceive their athletic participation as
benefitting their academic achievements? Nine of the athletes mentioned believing their
participation in collegiate sport has been positive for their academics. Lori, a Big 10 track and
field athlete, came right out and stated:

I gotten better grades since I became an athlete and we do have a good facility for student
athletes to get academic help but I mean [I] really haven‟t utilized that and I have still
become a better student just because I have become more goal oriented.

Tony, a swimmer from the Big 10, felt that his time management skills have been
enhanced since becoming a college athlete. He discussed that:

Having a 4 hour commitment a day in the pool really makes you a lot more efficient at
doing your work because you have less time to do it in. I mean like right now we are out
of the pool for like two weeks and I find myself with a lot of free time because I‟m so
good at getting my work done very quickly.

Ellen, a volleyball player from the Big 10, echoed the comments made by Tony. She
believed she performed better academically because she was an athlete. She remarked:

I‟m just so used to being so busy with volleyball I wouldn‟t know what to do with my
time…in high school, when I wasn‟t in season I got worse grades than when I was in
season. So, I like working and staying up late, having to go to practice, I got better grades
than when I did than when we were not in season. And I think that volleyball…I felt like
it made you focus more on school too.
210 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

Ali also discussed that she was a better student because of her sport participation. Her
response had to do with her attending classes. When discussing how her life would be
different in college if she were not an athlete Ali remarked:

I think that I would probably skip a lot more classes. Actually I don‟t think I‟ve skipped
any classes since I‟ve come to college since you know we get class checked every once in
awhile and you never know when you‟re going to get class checked so I‟d think I‟d
probably skip a lot more classes and probably not do as well.

Ali, like many other athletes, believed that their participation in collegiate athletics was a
benefit to their academic performance. Knowing that people were watching their class
attendance and grades caused some of the athletes to try harder and be more disciplined.
Learning outside of the classroom. Nine of the 30 participants discussed what they have
learned outside of the classroom while at their university. The athletes mentioned gaining
knowledge through internships, sport, and learning to apply what the knowledge they
received in the classroom to the real world.
Andrew, a men‟s tennis athlete from the Big-12, felt that his experiences outside of the
classroom through internships has prepared him well for his life after college. He believed
that his university had prepared him well. He stated:

I‟ve gotten a little taste of [the real world] this past summer. I interned with a real estate
company in Atlanta and they gave me a little bit of taste of what the real world would be
like and what I would want to be doing after college. I felt prepared for that.

Andrew‟s time at his internship made him confident that all of the experiences he had
during his time at his university had prepared him to enter the work force and to be
successful.
Caitlin, a golfer at a Big-10 university, felt that she wanted to obtain the best education
she could in order to be successful after college. Caitlin commented that:

The thing is the education that I‟m getting is so it‟s so good and for me it‟s not only about
skills from the school. It‟s about me taking care of myself and going to class wanting to
learn and I think that‟s what college is about.

Caitlin believed that what she was learning in all areas of college were essential in order
to obtain her post-college dreams.
Faith, a Pac-10 conference swimmer, believed that what she had learned at her university
had set her up for success. She remarked:

I‟d say I‟ve learned a lot more outside the classroom than I have in the classroom at
[name of university] through different experiences, through different friends and people
I‟ve met…the relationships I‟ve developed have met a lot more than the classes. I‟ve
learned a lot through my classes but I think the value of my [name of university]
education will be measured by my ability to change the world and less by the grades I got
here...the critical thinking skills, the scientific eye I‟ve developed, the writing skills, the
communication skills, and a lot of the stuff I‟ve learned outside the classroom…
leadership, interpersonal communication, relationship building, you know learning how
to be a mentor, learning how to get mentored by someone and find mentors that will be
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 211

meaningful to you…those things will serve me much more than any genetic understand I
have or any calculus understanding I have.

Additionally, Faith believed that swimming has taught her invaluable lessons. She
explained that:

It‟s taught me a lot of really important life lessons like hard work paying off, and goal
setting being really important and those are things that everyone says but until you really
experience a life of setting very strategically placed goals you don‟t really understand
what it‟s like. And a lot of people get them through other things, through academics and
through other extracurriculars but I learned that through swimming.

For each of the participants who spoke about learning outside of the classroom, they all
felt that they have grown from their time at their university. The athletes spoke about taking
what they learned in the classroom and applying it to what the career field they hoped to
pursue after college. Further, they believed that participating in their chosen sport while in
college has taught them goal setting, hard work, and other skills that they will be able to use
in their future careers.

Academic Challenges Faced While Being a Collegiate Athlete

Throughout the interview process, each of the athletes also spoke about a challenge or
challenges they faced in balancing both the academic and athletic commitments. All of the
athletes discussed the time available to them to study time. In addition, the sub-themes of
study skills, athletics impacting academics, and prioritizing athletics over academics were
examined.
Study time. All 30 participants discussed the time they had available to study while in and
out of season. In general, the participants said they had approximately 2-3 hours a day or 10-
15 hours during the week to study. Their ability to study on the weekends depended upon
their athletic schedule – how many games did they have, travel schedule, meetings, and so
forth. Andrew, a tennis player from the Big 12 conference, described an average day. He
explained that it is tough to study because:

The day gets so broken up into little pieces cause you go to class in the morning typically
and then you go to lunch and then you go to practice and you go to training, whatever
that may be, and then by the time you finish that its probably 5:30/6:00 pm. You go
home, take a shower, and then you eat dinner. And by the time you get back and get
settled and ready to study, it is 8:00 pm. If you gotta get up at 6:00 am to run the next
morning you know you want to get 7 hours of sleep it only leaves you a couple hours to
study at night which makes it tough. It‟s tough because the middle of the day is so broken
up with going to class and 15 minute break and going to practice and there‟s not a real
window to study until late at night. So usually you have a few hours late at night before
you go to bed it just takes discipline and time management.

The schedule that Andrew described was similar to what many of the other participants
stated in their account of time available to study. Overall, the athletes felt that they did have
212 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

time to study, although in some cases it was not as much time as they would like to devote to
their studies.
Study skills. Nineteen athletes discussed their study skills and how their sport impacts
those skills. Jeff, a golfer from the Big 12, stated that participating in collegiate golf
absolutely impacted his study skills. He stated that playing a sport, “Definitely makes it
harder, you‟re tired a lot. Sometimes instead of studying you just want to go to sleep.”
Trenton, a Pac-10 university soccer player, felt similarly to Jeff and spoke about fatigue
from his sport participation impacting his ability to study. Trenton commented:

You got to go to the library certain times, just make sure you go, but also at the same
time, it‟s…you‟re a lot more tired (laughs). By the time night comes, you‟re just so tired.
You just gotta push through. But, I would say, if I wasn‟t playing I won‟t have that
mental fatigue. You just get use to it.

Fatigue was something that was reported by many of the participants and something that
impacted their study skills. The participants often stated that they knew they had to study but
often found it difficult due to lack of time and lack of energy after participating in their sport.
Athletics impacting academics. Fatigue not only impacted the athletes‟ ability to study at
times, but it also had an effect on their ability to keep up with schoolwork. Erin, a women‟s
golfer from the Big-12 conference, discussed the difference between playing sport in high
school and college, as well as the challenges she faces trying to keep up with her schoolwork.
Erin remarked:

Well first semester it was a big shock. I was a good student in high school. I had a 3.8
GPA. I played sports in school, like golf and all my other sports in high school, but it
wasn‟t as intense. When you come back from these tournaments all you want to do is
sleep, and you don‟t want to wake up for an 8 am when you get back at 2 am. You don‟t
want to go to classes, and it‟s really up to you whether you go to those classes. So it‟s
definitely…taxing.

Similar to Erin‟s description of balancing sport and school as taxing, Damien spoke about
how his sport participation has impacted his academic achievements and his ability to study.
In describing how tennis has impacted his study skills and academics, Damien stated:

[Playing tennis] obviously hurt [academics]… It hasn‟t helped it… It helps me get by
because they do provide just enormous amounts of support but I mean I think the bottom
line is that I am a 19 year old college student who doesn‟t want to study 20 hours a week
you know. But I would say that there is obviously way more time for me to get my school
work done if I didn‟t play sports.

Libby felt she had a lack of time and would often sacrifice her schoolwork for sleep. She
knew she had to get a good night sleep in order to perform well at practice in the morning.
She said:

Sometimes I really feel like I don‟t have enough time. It‟s especially [hard] when I have
to get up at 5 and I get exhausted, so I‟m tired late at night and I can‟t stay up. Plus, I
have to go to bed so I can be ready for morning practice.
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 213

Tony, a swimmer from the Big 10 conference, felt that sport was impacting his academics
and other areas of his college life. He commented, “I think my GPA might be higher, but, um,
I don‟t know…I‟d have more time to socialize and do other extracurriculars.”
The comments by Erin, Damien, Libby, and Tony illustrate the difficulties that collegiate
athletes face in balancing the time spent on their sport with their schoolwork. Admittedly they
do not have as much time to study as their peers who are not collegiate athletes. However,
they all understood that this was a sacrifice they were making in order to continue playing the
sport they love at the collegiate level. While they did wish for more free time, none of the
participants stated that they wished they were not a collegiate athlete.
Prioritizing athletics over academics. While some of the participants alluded to
neglecting schoolwork to focus on athletics or not studying in order to get a few extra hours
of sleep to be ready for practice, three participants made bold statement illustrating how they
prioritize athletics at the expense of their academics.
Allen, a Pac-10 conference tennis player, discussed skipping a class to prepare for or
compete in a tennis match. He stated:

If the match is at 11 am and I have class from 11 am to 12 pm, I will skip class „cause I
have to be at the [competition] at 10:30 so I can warm up.

Faith discussed doing what was needed to get by in her classes and never really having
the ability to get ahead in her classes. She commented:

If I had an assignment due I would stay up to do it but if I had reading to do for class, I‟d
usually like at 10 o‟clock if I wasn‟t done with it I‟d go to bed because I knew that I had
to do sleep over some extra work. So, any of the extra work that I had, like I do my
assignments and turn in my assignments, but any of the studying and class preparation
stuff that wasn‟t graded necessarily but was really important for success would get
pushed back to the weekend really.

Jenn, a track and field athlete from the Big 12 conference, had suffered injuries
throughout her athletic career. As a result, she had to spend additional time, on top of the
normal sport commitments, in the athletic training room. She discussed her experiences with
prioritizing athletics over academic commitments when she stated:

I was a college athlete I felt like my life was very focused on athletics even though I was
a student athlete, I feel that it was more about the athletic part, less time was made for
school. I feel like I was somewhat of an exception because most people seem to balance
that really well, they have enough time for school, they have enough time for athletics I
think, maybe because I was kinda an injured athlete that it took more of time because
some days I would have to rehab, like physical therapy, spend more time with my trainer.
So I feel like that it was a little overboard for me as an athlete.

CONCLUSION
There is a great deal of knowledge that one, who works with athletes or athletics in
general, take away from this chapter. In a general sense it should be noted that athletes were
far more positive when discussing their academics in light of participation in college sport.
214 Amanda L. Paule and Todd A. Gilson

This finding aligns with Potuto and O‟Hanlon (2007), who concluded that overall, Division I
athletes receive a quality education on par with non-athletic students.
One specific finding on interest is the fact that the most mentioned positive theme was
the academic support that athletes receive from staff, private facilities, and teammates.
Additionally, it is important to note that the two athletes who specifically spoke about the
benefits of teammates with academics (i.e., Libby – class advising and Molly – studying with
teammates) came from the sport of swimming and diving. This may be because while all
college sport teams strive to have a great deal of task cohesion (or the degree to which group
members work together to achieve common goals and objectives), swimming and diving may
also exhibit a high level of social cohesion (that is the interpersonal attractions among group
members) (Carron, Hausenblas, and Eys, 2005). In particular, swimming and diving teams
routinely field a large number of participants and usually practice in a restricted space with all
team members. Thus, these conditions may facilitate team members forms close bonds, above
and beyond the goal of winning a conference or national championship, to help them more
efficiently deal with other challenges, such as academics. Because nearly 1/2 of the athletes
interviewed discussed these benefits in one form or another, these are effective points which
coaches, teammates, and other athletic staff should highlight to prospective students
considering a university for their future studies.
Beyond additional support which athletes received from teammates and their institution,
nine athletes also spoke about how athletics made them more goal oriented towards their
academic pursuits. While this approach to academics is a benefit for those nine athletes, it is
troubling that the other 21 athletes did not perceive this benefit from their athletic
participation. When this benefit is coupled with the fact that all 30 athletes discussed, in one
way or another, the perceived lack of time to complete their academic pursuits competently,
an increased awareness of goal setting for academics becomes another practical implication.
Specifically, coaches spend a great deal of time developing goals for players and the team
related to athletic performance for pre-season conditioning, season competitions, and off-
season workouts. However, while most coaches may stress the importance of earning good
grades or staying eligible, no research that the authors could find highlighted coaches setting
academic goals for their athletes with the same significance level as athletic goals. Thus, since
the coach is recognized as the main facilitator of the climate for the players (Pensgaard and
Roberts, 2002), coaches should follow the practical advice for athletic goal setting outlined by
Gould (2006) and apply these principles to all areas of their players‟ lives.
Despite these important findings, this research study is not without limitations. For
instance, we examined athletes from nine non-revenue sports in four of the largest athletic
conferences. The results may have been different if we had examined smaller conferences,
such as the Mid-American Conference or Conference USA, as well. Future research should
expand to look at athletes from all different athletic conferences in Division I, as well as
Division II and III.
Future work should also explore the perceptions athletes have toward sport and their
academic experience based on scholarship status. Do athletes on any form of athletic
scholarship (full or partial) feel more pressure (either internal or external) to focus more of
their attention and time on their sport than there non-scholarship peers? Further, since athletic
scholarships are not guaranteed for four years and are in fact one-year renewable scholarships
does that play a part in an athlete‟s decision to focus more on sport over academics. Given
 Does Athletic Participation Benefit or Hinder Academic Performance? 215

that two participants stated that their athletic participation was the reason they were at the
academic institution this is definitely an important area to research.
With the apparent rise of academic clustering in college athletics (Case, Greer, and
Brown, 1987; Finley and Fountain, 2007, 2009; Suggs, 2003), an examination into whether
non-revenue athletes are being guided into the less rigorous majors in order to maintain
eligibility while competing in their sport. Since these athletes have very little chance of
participating in their sport after college (NCAA, 2009), it is critical that they are able to
obtain an education in a field that will benefit them upon graduation.
Finally, it is essential to understand that qualitative findings by nature are not meant to be
representative of the larger population because of their smaller sample size. While this
research study did employ a strong methodology in hopes of obtaining the most descriptive
picture of the role of athletic participation on a current big-time, non-revenue athletes
academic pursuits, it is possible that varying data interpretations could be made about the
gender of the participants and the institutions represented. However, from these interviews it
was clear, that although these athletes face challenges of not being able to devote as much as
they may wish to their academic endeavors due to the many hours they must put into their
sport, many stated that it has helped their time management skills because they had a great
deal to accomplish for school and relatively little time to do the work.
Given the current state of academics for big-time, non-revenue college athletes this
research can assert that though there are environmental considerations which could be altered
to provide a more conducive academic climate for athletes, there are more positive than
negative associations with academics when one engages in college sport. Athletes in this
chapter confirmed this fact, as all 30 mentioned that having additional time to study would be
a benefit to their academic pursuits; however, not one athlete was regretful of the choice he or
she made to participate in athletics at the collegiate level.

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