david45 wrote:
This is absolutely false. If you’re not on the real team then you can go to way more parties, drink way more beer, and get way more chicks (or dudes if that’s what you’re into).
BS. How come so many people want to be D1 athletes?[/quote]
This is actually true david. For my sport, Football, we traveled to a hotel on Friday night, even for home games. Saturday was game day, if this was an away game, you're not making it back to campus until way after midnight, and we had practice Sunday. Only nights we got to go out in-season were some Saturday home nights, but this was in moderation as we all knew we had practice Sunday. During the "Off-Season" we still had workouts and spring practice. Spring practice had Saturday morning practices so no going out on Friday nights and an early film session Sunday morning so again, not really going out Saturday night.
Most have this romanticized version of athletics, they don't realize how hard it is. Many people quit. The percentage of walk ons who lasted 4 years was less than 15%. Heck even scholarship people quit. Go look at a soccer roster and see how many seniors and juniors you see vs freshman and sophomores.
That's why people run club. You still have some freedom, you're not owned by the university. I literally had to sign the rights to my name, image, and likeness away.
I played football at the D1 level because I busted my ass for the opportunity to try to do something about 1% of players get to do.