Maryland athletes grapple with changing role of academics: ‘This is a business’
For student-athletes at Maryland, a university with a rich academic tradition but questionable success on the fields and courts this decade, a wedge is being driven between classes and sports. The role of academics in modern college athletics is dwindling, players and professors told The Baltimore Sun. Athletes are being pushed toward majors that are perceived as easier, and their focus in the classroom is waning.
Money is pulling their attention elsewhere. “In this day and age, people can get away with not being too great at school and being a good athlete,” said Brayden Martin, a junior on the Terps baseball team and nephew of Maryland basketball legend Walt Williams. Maryland administrators push back on the notion that athletes are deemphasizing their academics.
Athletic director Jim Smith and Brady Rourke, the director of the Gossett Center for Academic Success, say that classes remain just as critical to athletes’ lives as they’ve always been. Rourke’s office embodies that belief. Once the football team’s locker room before being repurposed in 2022, Gossett Hall features no artwork of Terps on the field or court, nor championship trophies or photos of celebrations.
Successful alumni, graduation statistics and other academic accomplishments instead adorn the halls connecting computer rooms and dining areas. This space is for keeping the student in student-athlete, a haven from the pressures they face between the lines. “We don’t know what they make.
When they’re in here, their identity is student,” Rourke told The Sun. “College athletics has changed, obviously, but what we do hasn’t changed. ” It’s true that academics haven’t totally disappeared; Athletes must remain eligible.
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