Readers react to a column about student-athletes’ performance on the field coming before grades. Fans, universities and the NCAA also show little interest in student-athlete education, according to the column.

Read the full column here. 

Jennifer Gottschalk: “I know firsthand that those in Bohler care about the student-athletes’ successes in the classroom. Just one example: Swimming is a sport known for its crazy hours and the WSU swim team’s GPA is second only to Stanford in the PAC-12, and that’s a pretty common theme over the last decade or more.”

Kurt Semler: “They should get paid. The universities make hundreds of millions of dollars off of sporting events, concession sales, fan memorabilia, charging for carpark spaces, etc. ‘But education!’ my ass. What if your entire collegiate football team just quit and dedicated themselves to schooling? Your athletics department would shrivel up and die. They’re trading time, why shouldn’t they be compensated?”

Clara Oliver: “Wouldn’t mind much if we lost our athletics department considering how much they are currently costing us. Maybe they should just be intramural instead of funded by the school. I’d be a lot less bitter if they weren’t in the red.”

John Whelan: “There are absolutely conflicts that arise between school and sports, but to make the broad generalization that universities and athletes don’t care about academic success is quite simply not true and is insulting to see. If the desire is to actually have a real discussion about the topic, collect information from multiple perspectives. I know there are many people involved in athletics that would be happy to share their thoughts.”