Student Athletes: Students or Athletes?

Sweat slowly rolls down his forehead and past his eyes that are surrounded by dark rings, evidence of yet another night of only five hours of sleep. Finally the small beads of sweat drip onto the turf of the Spence Eccles Field House. He slowly lifts his exhausted eyes upwards to the lone clock that sits on the wall, 8 AM, one more hour till class starts.

He showers and slowly changes into a fresh set of clothes, void of the sweat that had soaked through his previous outfit, then heads to the cafeteria to eat a quick breakfast before heading to his first class.

Class, it seems, is his one escape from a day of seemingly endless amounts of weight lifting, running laps and drills. While weight lifting, running laps and drills seem to be his only escape from classes, study sessions and text books. Sure there’s 30 minute periods scattered throughout the day in which he has the opportunity to take some time for himself, time he usually spends talking to his soon to be wife or with his family. But for the most part he spends his day with two things: a textbook or a football.

This is the reality that Chayden Johnston, a kicker on the University of Utah football team, and hundreds of other student athletes at the University of Utah live in. It’s a reality that is dominated by athletics and academics.

“I typically spend about 21 hours a week on school work,” Johnston says. “Football is usually about 35 hours a week.” These numbers are not limited to members of the football team, Parker Van Dyke, a member of the Utah men’s basketball team, estimated that he spends roughly 10 hours a week doing school work and nearly 15 hours towards basketball while Guro Jordheim, a Cross-Country Skier from Norway, relates similar hours as Van Dyke.

“I think the hardest thing to balance is the sleep schedule, “Johnston explained. “Being in college everyone wants to stay up, so you end up just being super tired and falling asleep in class and playing a little bit tired.”

Student-athletes face a unique challenge across campuses nation-wide. While students enrolled in universities are focused on excelling in the classroom, student-athletes must work to excel not only in the classroom but in athletic competitions as well. And it’s a challenge that requires a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Luckily for the athletes, they do not have to try to tackle academics and athletics on their own. Both Van Dyke and Johnston explained that the university provides the athletes with learning specialists and the Student Athlete Academic Center which assists student-athletes with class scheduling and provides resources, such as tutors, to help athletes get school work done.

When asked if the resources provided by Utah were enough to help athletes succeed in difficult majors, such as Business, Law or Pre-Med, both Van Dyke and Johnston agreed they were. “Absolutely,” Johnston answered when asked if he felt that athletes who major in more difficult fields could still be successful. However the Pre-Med student warned that athletes will have to spend even more time studying. “The amount of free time [the athletes] have will be less than other students, but it is definitely manageable,” Johnston said.

Van Dyke echoed the same feelings as Johnston. “Yeah, it’s possible,” Van Dyke said. “It just requires a little bit more effort. … Our schedule allows it, it just takes a little bit more effort.”

When discussing the amount of time and effort a student-athlete puts in towards academics and sports the question of whether student athletes should be paid will inevitably come up. In 2014 members of the Northwestern football team filed to form a labor union in order to represent college athletes. While their request was eventually denied, the action brought attention to a sensitive issue for thousands of student athletes.

But while there are athletes who believe that student athletes should be paid for their contribution towards university athletics, a program which brought in nearly $80 million to the University of Utah in 2016, Van Dyke believes the school already does enough to compensate student athletes. “My personal position is that I feel very fortunate and compensated for what I do and I don’t have this need to be paid,” Van Dkye said.

Both Van Dyke and Johnston did reveal, however, that student athletes on scholarship do receive a monthly amount from the school that is intended to go towards food and housing. Van Dyke did not reveal how much he was given but Johnston explained that scholarship players on the Utah football team receive $1,396.20 each month. Additionally, both Johnston and Van Dyke explained that as athletes who live at home, and not on campus, they do not have housing or food expenses and are free to spend that money on whatever they would like.

When asked if they were in favor of a “pay for play” situation in which athletes would be paid for their time, both players seemed impartial to the idea yet neither had an answer to how they would resolve the conflict of whether student athletes should be paid or not.

“I don’t know about a pay for play,” Johnston said. “But I think we should get paid more [for monthly food and housing costs] once you get married or if you have kids. I know a few players who have a few kids and struggle to pay child support.”

Whether or not student athletes are paid for their time, the challenge remains the same: find ways to do the best you can both in the classroom and on the field. It’s a challenge that involves spending hours studying for tests and writing papers. And it’s a challenge that involves hours in the weight room, watching film and practicing for game day. And it’s a challenge that hundreds of thousands of student athletes face every day. But in the words of Parker Van Dyke, “It’s possible.”