Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Roughly, more than 25 million students, between the ages of 6-17, participate in an organized team sport today. (1) With the amount of money offered in NCAA athletic scholarships growing by at least a factor of five, (4) many around the world wish to continue to actively pursue their education while continuing to train and compete in their sport of choice. In this digital age, student-athletes now face more influencers or primers than ever, both tactical and emotional, that can potentially sway a decision that could affect the rest of their lives; where to go to university/college. This pressure-filled process, full of changing rules and regulations affects a student-athletes psychosocial well-being for better or worse. Do to this pressure, we feel it is likely that a percentage of those students will either transfer or quit altogether after their first two years of school, serving as another challenge for athletic administrators and coaches. For the average four-year college or university, $10 million in revenue is lost annually to attrition, (8) while students at all colleges may lose out on career and life aspirations and accumulate debt that can be difficult to pay back. Thus, all student-athletes should be armed with as much information as possible to allow them to make the best college decision for their needs. We feel our solution will become the necessary first step for any student-athlete anywhere in the world to become more confident in making the decision for their post-secondary education.