Student-athlete lifestyle

Don Ferrell, retired academic advisor
Pennsylvania State University
Philadelphia Inquirer

Discussing the "evolution" over time of college football student-athletes:

"When I first started (in 1982), the (student-athletes) would bring a little travel bag on road trips. Everything they had was contained in there, and you knew what to expect. They took out a shirt, you knew it was a shirt.

"Then they started bringing a suitcase. You still pretty much knew what was inside. A few years later, they came with a suitcase and a travel bag. You knew what was in the suitcase, but the travel bag was extracurricular.

"Now they bring two suitcases and two travel bags and you don't know what's going to happen when they open it."

Academic success

Beth Dunkenberger, head women's basketball coach
Western Carolina University
Athletic Management

"Make school work a topic of conversation before and after a practice. I ask my players, 'How's your homework? How was your exam?'

"Competitive people are generally competitive in everything they do. So we split the team in two, and one assistant coach takes half of the team, and another takes the other half. Every week, the student-athletes check in with their coach, and they'll compete to see which group gets the highest cumulative grade-point average.

"The losers have to cook dinner for the winners, so they become very motivated. It's a matter of pride that all the student-athletes want to be in the winning group. Even the coaches get into it, joking with each other that they've got the better group. It works really well."

Division I football

Terry Hoeppner, head football coach
Miami University (Ohio)
New York Times

"We can, and have, shown that we can compete between the lines. It's outside the lines we have trouble, in terms of stadium sizes and providing a large enough fan base that travels to bowl games."

Athletics values

William G. Bowen and Sarah A. Levin, authors
Christian Science Monitor

"We believe that a well-conceived athletics program offers tremendous benefits. But realizing these benefits does not require the kinds of 'professionalized' athletics programs that have evolved over the past three or four decades. In fact, one consequence of the increased reliance on recruited athletes is diminishing opportunity for 'regular students' to play college sports. The most compelling arguments for college sports are undercut by fielding teams that are uninvolved in much of campus life and are, in significant ways, at odds with the primary educational missions of these institutions.

For all these reasons, it is time to 'reclaim the game' -- to get back to thinking of 'sports for the students,' rather than of 'students for the sports,' as one faculty member told us."