Authors: Alex Sinatra and Trayveon Williams
Student participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation, and student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.”1
Section 2.9 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 handbook lays out the Principle of Amateurism, which was the oft-used battle cry of the NCAA to maintain control over the careers of college athletes.2 The NCAA specifically used the term “avocation,” defined as “a hobby or minor occupation,” and in doing so drew an implicit distinction with vocation,” a “person’s employment or main occupation, especially regarded as particularly worthy and requiring great dedication.” We contend
that college athletes’ participation in athletics is, in fact, a vocation — one that they strategically, and with great skill, balance with their studies and their personal lives.