Emporia State should encourage a more student friendly schedule for athletes, leaving them ample time to prepare for homework and exams over weekends. ESU’s economic status should not reflect on the quality of education its student-athletes receive.

In the midst of the impending economic status, President Barack Obama issued an American recovery and investment plan in an effort to create a higher job market. America has fallen into a recession and the American economy has reached the lowest point that most college students can remember.

ESU’s fiscal budget for 2009 dropped $420,000. The university is attempting to curb these costs by lowering costs of sports, reducing athletic scholarships and lowering campus employment.

The Hornets’ baseball team schedule is one instance where ESU is attempting to cut back. Of the 51 games the Hornets have remaining, over 50 percent of them are played one right after the other. Most of the time, they play three or more within the same weekend.

According to Head Coach Bob Fornelli, this year’s schedule was designed in a strong effort to cope with this year’s budget cuts. ESU, along with many other schools, has started to schedule games back to back to cut down on budgeting costs.

This scheduling effort has taken great toll on the teams, however, leaving a short amount of time in between games to prepare for the next.

Last weekend, the Hornets’ baseball team competed in four games against the Colorado School of Mines, all four of which they won. The weekend prior to playing Colorado, the Hornets competed against Regis University and were only given Wednesday to practice before leaving Emporia.

This lack of time and practice can cause a large deficit in time for academic work. Although studies have shown that, in recent years, student-athletes average a slightly higher grade point average, America’s current economic status was not accounted for in these studies.

Because a lot of student-athletes rely on scholarships from sports, these constant travel arrangements can cause dire consequences. Some student-athletes cannot afford to go to college outside of sports scholarships. This could cause student-athletes to focus less on school and more on sports, in turn lowering their GPA.

To resolve this problem there should be a limit on how many games a team can compete in per week. By doing so this, it will limit the time spent participating in sports and help balance sports and academics. This tactic should curb the hits to this year’s budget and also help give athletes an appropriate amount of rest and practice between games.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

Send article as PDF to