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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: There should be a degree for athletics

TO THE EDITOR:

Forgive me if this idea has been suggested already, but why can’t student-athletes major in athletics? Coming from a high school athlete who is now a Ph.D. student, athletics require every bit as much determination, self-discipline, organization and intellectual ability as scholarly pursuits.

Anything that saps a student’s brain energy should be called what it is — their major! Furthermore, I could be a music performance or art major — why not football? Call it the “athletic performance major” and design a curriculum.

Athletics have become a core part of UNC’s mission. They are the common thread that unite many of us. A major in athletics from a school like UNC offers promising career options.

Such a major might also allow college athletes to free themselves of the profiteering NCAA, the university to save administrative costs and for all of us to watch and debate the games guilt-free. What am I missing here?

Joseph Rigdon

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

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