Results from the 2015 GOALS Study of the Student-Athlete Experience:

[rdbass]

Interesting....when took up the sport, hours practicing, classes missed, whether they'd do it again:
http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/GOALS_convention_slidebank_jan2016_public.pdf

 

[redbirdone]

Seems the majority would. What is left out of this survey is the social/bonding aspect of playing a college sport and spending hours and hours together on buses, planes, hotel rooms, weight room, etc. And also, how playing the sport helped finance their education is touched on, but not really explored in depth.

 

[corlay]

"athletes are indicating that
their athletics participation has prevented them from enrolling in their
desired major, but few say they regret their choice"

They really need to re-ask this question of the same group,
10 years from now...

 

[redbirdone]

"athletes are indicating that
their athletics participation has prevented them from enrolling in their
desired major, but few say they regret their choice"

They really need to re-ask this question of the same group,
10 years from now...

I'll counter that with ask 100 non-student athlete grads from 2005 if they regret their major. I'm sure you would get more than a few who would check the box "yes."

 

[corlay]

I'll counter that with ask 100 non-student athlete grads from 2005 if they regret their major. I'm sure you would get more than a few who would check the box "yes."

But what prevented these 100 non-student athlete grads from enrolling in their desired major?

I'm not disputing that many would enroll in a different major with the benefit of hindsight,
that is not really my point.

 

[marriard]

Great info...

The one thing we should be showing every player to help them understand the commitment - reported time spent between just class work and athletic commitment is over 70 hours per week in season and that 66% of respondents said they spent AS MUCH time on athletics in the off-season as they do in-season.

Just for reference, I asked my non-high school 14U DD to work it out right now for her current time commitments:

School: roughly 40 between all related academic activities
Softball/Athletics - Tournament week: 21-28 hours (depending on how well they do, includes warm ups, gaps between scheduled games, etc)
Softball/Athletics - non-Tournament week: 9-11 hours (hit lesson, pitch lesson, team practices, self-practice, other)

This didn't include travel time/time between classes/eating lunch/etc.

It is a significant jump in full time commitment to be a student-athlete, especially on non-game weeks. And I believe that my DD probably spends more time on her game than most of her teammates (+ pitching, + time spent practicing outside of team practices) - I would say most of her non-pitching teammates are probably closer to 5 hours per week (team practices, hitting lesson, little bit of hitting outside practice).