Vydal Bradford, a freshman-athlete at Southwest Minnesota State University stated, “It’s not too much for me because I’ve gotten used to it. Coming in I knew it was time to mature and stay on myself as much as possible in order to be successful.” He makes a good point as the most important way to prepare yourself for anything is to do so mentally.

 

College student-athletes nearly work a full-time job. Practicing 40 plus hours a week and then you may have one, two or maybe even three games a week. There should be some type of payout to where the athletes are getting some money to at least provide for themselves. If not they’ll be forced to put in another 30 plus hours a week for a job that pays them biweekly. That’d be 70 plus hours a week; however, you also have to factor in sleep also. Eight hours each night for a whole week would be 56 hours total. There are 168 hours in a week so once you take out the hours that are required, you’d be left with 42 hours a week to focus on academics and extracurricular activities.

 

With all of these statistics, it is clear to see collegiate student-athletes live a hard-pressed life. It is if only fair that they get some sort of benefits so they are able to provide for themselves while their sport has them occupied. Benefits could possibly motivate them to do even more for their team. The only way to test that theory is to make it a reality.