Rules of the game | Unpaid professionals | Stretched thin | Time, money and resources | Choosing a major

Student athletes must make sacrifices in order to compete at the level expected of them. Many end up finding that their participation in athletics compromises the “typical” college experience.

Darrell Stuckey, a KU football star and May 2009 graduate, knew that, unlike other students, he would never be able to work at a job or internship while he was in school because of the time demands of football. In order to leave college with something else on his resume, he decided to become involved in as many campus clubs as possible. Stuckey joined and attended weekly meetings of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Student Senate.

“It’s really kind of challenging as a student athlete and then being involved in so much also,” Stuckey said. “It puts a hamper on you a little bit. You don’t feel like you’re doing everything to your full potential.”

Stuckey said most athletes come to KU unable to prioritize school and sports and give off bad first impressions that perpetuate the “dumb jock” stereotype. Unfortunately, he said, those are the images that stick.

“Most people think ‘Oh he’s a star football player so he’ll be lazy,’” Stuckey said. “Outside of football, yeah, I work that much harder to show that I’m just as viable and just as intelligent as the next average student.”

The “dumb jock” stereotype evolved on college campuses as a result of once-lax admission and academic standards for star athletes. Despite a recent focus on academics and reform efforts, college athletics have been tainted by scandals and fraud, many of them centered around student athletes in the classroom.

Several problems were brought to light at the University when Athletics Director Lew Perkins came to the University in 2003 and hired an outside group to conduct an investigation into alleged NCAA violations. A total of 15 violations were uncovered between the football and men’s and women’s basketball teams, including charges of providing answers to online tests for football recruits.

But this is not just a recent problem. Twenty years earlier, the University was at the forefront of national media attention for academic misconduct within the Athletics Department.

Katzman remembers well the day in 1985 when then-KU men’s basketball coach Larry Brown appeared in his office to discuss a student’s failing grade.

Brown pressured Katzman to change the grade so the student, a starter on the basketball team at the time, could remain academically eligible to play that season. Katzman refused, and the story eventually exploded onto the national stage when The University Daily Kansan published copies of letters between the two men.

Since that episode, Katzman said, he rarely interacts with student athletes; they no longer enroll in his classes – presumably, he says, because word of that incident spread through the Athletics Department. Instead, he said he believes many athletes migrate to professors who, he’s told, are sometimes referred to as “jock sniffers” because they seem to get their thrills by associating with athletes in their classes.

Rules of the game | Unpaid professionals | Stretched thin | Time, money and resources | Choosing a major

— Edited by Sarah Kelly