<p>It’s even worse when you consider the time commitment required of athletes, scholarship or not (usually at least half of the members of a non-revenue sport do not get <em>any</em> scholarship money).</p>
<p>Take softball as an example. A team will play about 60 games per year. When not competing, they athletes are at mandatory weight training in the morning and practice in the afternoon.</p>
<p>I’m sure it is the same in every sport. A college athlete devotes approx. 30-35 hours per week <em>mandatory</em> with the team. Is your lab scheduled during practice so that you miss an hour of practice on Thursdays? Sorry kid, guess you’ll have to pick another major!</p>
<p>Those 30-35 hours per week during the season (4-5 school months) and 20 hours per week off-season (3-4 school months) knock out any opportunity for a part time job, and more importantly, career related internships and networking.</p>
<p>A student could earn a LOT more money just working part-time than they receive in scholarship money. (of course this is not true of the 2-3 per team on full ride).</p>