Chapter 20 Who Loves the Jocks?

Chapter 20 explains how undergraduates feel about college athletes at their schools. The benefits or special treatments the athletes get just because they are athletes creates hostility on campus. In the eyes of some regular undergraduates, they feel that some athletes come very close to the “dumb jock” stereotype. The interviews and questionnaires done by the author reveal resentment and cynicism about the admission of athletes into their schools.

Question - Should all intercollegiate athletes meet the same university entrance requirements as regular students?

Many of students agreed with the fact even if you’re and athlete you should meet all the same requirements that everyone else has to. Many of the undergrad students feel cheated or think it isn’t fair for an athlete to just walk in with horrible grades and SAT scores. A Georgetown University Junior offers an explanation: “I busted my ass in high school to get into this place, and I know that some of the basketball players here got almost half the SAT score I did…then again, our team would be terrible if only regular Georgetown students played.” The student is upset but at the same time doesn’t really care because the team wouldn’t be as good if it wasn’t for those “dumb jocks.” A lot of doublethink occurs when the students explain how they feel in this chapter about athletes getting all the things they want. They say they’re upset but at the same time go crazy when they see a star athlete from their team.

Some of the things athletes get are free unlimited tutoring and priority scheduling of classes. This might be the cause of the jealousy. One student said, “I can’t believe that schools will ever give the same assistance to regular students that they give athletes.” The responses on special admittance and academic perks for athletes reflect undergraduate attitudes to intercollegiate athletes in the abstract. But opinions were opposite when the celebrity of the player is brought up and becomes important, “triggering a doublethink response.” Regular undergrad students always complain about the athletes special deals, and then they turn around and tell you how excited they were when they saw the star athlete on the basketball team. The students have split personalities, talking bad about the players but become amazed when they meet them. The title of the chapter is “Who loves the Athletes?” The answer to that question is yes, no, maybe, sometimes all three reactions at once.

For whatever reason why the undergraduates have hostility towards athletes is really unknown. But the result of the chapter shows that many regular students have mixed feelings about the jocks, and essentially contradicts what everyone says sports does, and that is, creating school spirit. The author ends the chapter best by acknowledging the true meaning of big time sports which is student recruitment, retention, and alumni donations. The author leaves a thought with the reader wondering what those three things mean.

The chapter and essentially the whole book reveals all the myths about college sports and again it reveals how college athletes are really not liked by the students. The students are kind of fake and don’t care. Well that’s what I think.