College Football - It’s not your Job.

Yesterday’s post by Kelly the TaxGirl really got me to thinking about college football and just how much we expect of these kids. I say kids, but remember that I’m only 22 myself and a recent college grad, so I remember very clearly what college is like. Sometimes, I think we all forget that college football is not the players’ job. It’s just an extra curricular activity.

I mean, really, think about what we ask these kids to do. They go to school full time,  so that’s 30-40 hours per week of classes, labs, and homework, depending on the schedule. So, school is a student’s “job”, even if they aren’t getting paid for it. Imagine coming home from your job every week and having to go straight to a physical, grueling football practice. Players do this at least five times per week in most cases. Let’s say that practice is around three hours long on average (I’m not sure how long it really is). That’s around 15 hours per week, so that’s like having a second part-time job.

But many college students have to have that second part-time job for real. As a recent grad, I know that I wouldn’t have survived without taking a 10-15 hour per week job. There’s no other way to buy food, pay for books, fill up your tank, etc. So, add on another 15 hours.

Then there’s game day. We’ll just assume 24 hours on average. It may be longer depending on where a team has to travel, how long the game actually lasts, what time the game starts, and so forth…but on average, I’m assuming that about 24 hours per week is tied up in the pre-game travel/practice/team building, the game itself, and required post-game activities.

Take a moment to calculate.  There are 168 hours in a week. Subtract 40 for school, 15 for practice, 15 for work, 24 for games…That’s 74 hours left. Now, you need 7-8 hours of sleep every night (we’ll estimate low at 7), around 14 hours a week for making/eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and around 5 hours a week for personal hygiene - showers, shaving, brushing your teeth, etc. And, for good measure, I’ll add 1 hour a week for cleaning, laundry, and other household chores that have to be done. Subtract that and you’re left with…5 hours. Ouch.

You can shave  a bit of time off eating or school work perhaps, but all in all, that’s only around 1 hour per day that a football player gets to be able to do what he wants to do…and I’m guessing that some don’t have any extra time, especially if they have to travel from off campus. I’m not trying to say “poor football players,” but really, sometimes we don’t give these kids the credit they deserve.

After all, most of them won’t make a career out of football. Sure, it’s everyone’s dream to be the next big thing in the NFL, but come draft day, there are thousands of other decent football players hoping to get picked. You have to be the best of the best, and even if you are good, you might get passed up if you played for a not-so-good team.

On top of that, these kids are playing on national television as well as to a live audience, sometimes of over 100,000 people. That’s an incredible amount of pressure to be under when you know that on Monday morning you have a huge Calculus exam. We pour a lot of money into football, but we can’t forget that we need to pour a lot of money into education as well. When these players graduate, will they be able to find jobs? Or have they been so focused on football and have their schools had such a lack of student counseling budget that they haven’t been able to network, explore career choices, and so forth? Here’s my hope for you - if you donate money to your favorite college football program, why not donate an equal amount to the school’s general annual fund, which will go toward educational advancements. Or, pick a department and donate the money specifically to that department. You can even find out the major of your favorite freshman player and donate money for something that will help his education.

College football is just a game. I love it and could watch it all day (and sometimes I do), but we can’t forget that it isn’t the same as NFL. In the NFL you get paid to play. In college, it’s on your own time.  Education has to come first.