Charles T. Clotfelter: An Analysis

To get an understanding of the significance of interscholastic competition at the collegiate level, simply turn on the television on a Saturday morning during college football. The sponsors, fans, pageantry, etc., is astronomical and continues to grow exponentially. Undoubtedly, college athletics is “big business” and is often viewed as a separate entity. Duke professor of public policy, economics and law, Charles T. Clotfelter, offers an interesting viewpoint on college athletics, stating faculty members’ blindness to the significance of big-time sports amounts to operating in a parallel universe, which is impossible, because the evidence is all around us and so commonplace (Etizen, 2012). Its difficulty to disagree with Clotfelter because sports are deeply rooted in our society. Popularity aside, there several positive and negative attributes associated with involvement in interscholastic …show more content…
When asked about his college athletic career, Kendall Spencer, a former track student-athlete at the University of New Mexico and chair of the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for Division I, explained and discussed the “student athlete experience” and how it helped him grow and achieve great things (NCAA). Moreover, the NCAA state the following reasons why a young man or woman should participate in college athletics: college education, academic success, scholarships, elite training opportunities, exposure and experiences and preparation for life (NCAA). According to Eitzen (2012), “the most important reason for universality of school sports is the widespread belief that the educational goals are accomplished through sport”. Image hearing these things as a 17 or 18-year-old hoping to star a big time university. These positive attributes easily draw in hundreds, but unfortunately, there are