​Affirming athletic excellence

Duke's place as an athletic powerhouse is inextricably tied to its reputation as a university. As a relatively young university, Duke’s swift ascent to the highest echelons of elite colleges has oft been attributed to its assertive dominance on the literal playing field (or court) during the early 1990s, which translated into an exponential growth in the number of applications for undergraduate admission. Today, Duke has been established as an undeniably excellent center of academics with consistent increases in applications regardless of success or scandal in athletic pursuits. Considering that, today we will examine the nature of sports at Duke and the position of the athletes who compete in them. We will especially seek to answer questions of what sports add and detract to Duke and whether student athletes benefit from or are benefited from by the university.

Focusing on what sports add to Duke, it should be noted that the association between sports and universities is a uniquely American tradition. At European universities of similar caliber there is no such association. One possible reason for that is that students at European universities rarely reside on a campus; most are commuters. At an institution like Duke, in contrast, where a huge body of diverse students live together, university athletics contribute positively to the student body by bringing diverse communities together under a common allegiance and cause: to cheer on the team. Sports and athletes in general also add a special element to the Duke student body. Just like the violin virtuoso who practices for four hours a day or the dance diva who devotes enormous studio time to their art, student athletes bring their own brand of unique, hardworking mastery to the campus, adding yet another layer to the rich diversity Duke aspires to have.

Addressing the question of who benefits from the relationship between athletes and the university, it appears that for the most part, both parties do. Although athletes at other institutions occasionally fail to benefit from the scholastic part of the university experience, athletes at Duke participate in the same rigorous academic programs as every other student—they are the university’s economics majors, its philosophers and its pre-med hopefuls. The vast majority of student athletes at Duke do not compete in their sports because they feel exploited into doing so as many critics claim. Rather, they love the sport they play and relish the opportunity to earn a scholarship for competing in that sport while studying at a world class university. As to whether the university profits unfairly off of its athletes, that seems unlikely. While two Duke sports—basketball and football—turn profits, much of that money indubitably goes towards funding the other 24 varsity sports.

Moving forward, Duke could take advantage of its unique athletics situation in two ways. First, with a high percentage of academically successful student athletes, Duke might be uniquely poised to prepare future leaders in fields such as sports management, sports media, kinesthesiology and other sports related fields of study not currently offered. Duke has the framework in place to develop as a center of excellence for the academic and rigorous study of athletics as intellectual and economic structures and ought to strike forward with the effort. Secondly, on a broader point, the university could leverage its strong reputation to push for reforms nationally that would bring athletes at other institutions the same academic opportunities that are stressed for them at Duke. Duke athletes are role models both on and off the court, and we hope to see that continue.