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Page Number

89

Abstract

This paper examines why colleges and universities sacrifice a group of gifted individuals, student athletes, all for the sake of money and prestige. These universities pay little or no attention to the horrific fate which they are bestowing on their sporting participants. These students are a group who have been promised an elite university education all in return for simply playing the sport that the students enjoy. Yet, despite the blessings the universities purportedly bestow on these athletes, there is a significant price to be paid. The sports they love and for which they are recruited subjects the student athletes to injuries which will not become apparent for many years after leaving college. The real cost of attending college and giving their university a winning season is traumatic brain injury brought about by multiple concussive and sub-concussive blows to the head and body.

We will look at the history of the university and its original purpose. Then, we will examine how the financial allure of sports has co-opted that once noble purpose to one of a money-making machine. We will ponder why schools turn a blind eye to the realities of concussive injury suffered by the student athlete and if there might be a way for these once honored institutions to regain their lost footing.

We will examine the new protections for athletes which could be employed if universities and colleges chose to alter their course. But, for this to be a reality, the schools must change their priorities and make the students and their education once again their focus. It means foregoing school adulation and the prospect of monetary gain for maintaining the original purpose of the institution. It is something which must be done now, or we, as a nation, face losing our most valuable resource-that of our students-who will be the future of our country.

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