NCAA Athletes Work Long Hours, Survey Says

If Michigan players complained about spending long hours on football, they were only voicing what many other student-athletes have told the NCAA.

While the Wolverines’ football program confronts allegations it broke NCAA rules, including the 20-hours-per-week limit on practices, the governing body’s own survey data show top-level college football players report spending well over twice that much time per week on athletic activities.

The 2006 survey of 21,000 student-athletes, the NCAA’s first attempt to measure time commitments, attracted little national notice. But it alarmed many educators and administrators when discussed at last year’s NCAA convention.

The most glaring statistic: Football players in major college programs estimated they spent 44.8 hours per week on athletic activities. That was nearly five hours per week more than any other sport, and 10 hours per week more than a majority of sports in the survey.

The student-athletes were reporting how they spent their time, and not necessarily what was formally required by their programs.

But the findings cast doubt on whether the 20-hour limit works when so many student-athletes on their own initiative or under pressure from coaches are doing so much more.

More broadly, the survey confirmed the extent to which top-level college sports especially football have become a full-time job, compatible perhaps with meeting academic requirements but with few of the broader elements of a full college experience, from student clubs to summer internships to study abroad.