Youth Sport Is Not A College Investment

Apr 20

I read an article in my local paper this week that explored the life of a 9-year-old baseball player from our area who is currently competing with a top 10-ranked baseball team in California every weekend for his travel baseball. I live in Texas. One of the dominating reasons, according to the family, is that they want to set their son up to get college paid for by his baseball talent. I wish I could say this was something happening less and less in youth sports, but it seems to be getting more and more popular with each generation.

As someone who lives in this space professionally and experienced this space as an athlete, I empathize with the families who take this approach to youth sports because I know it comes from a place situated between love and fear. The love stems from wanting your child to rise to their highest possible level in the things they’re passionate about or have a special talent for. The fear stems from the idea that, as a parent, you’ll put them on the “wrong” team or pass up on the “right” opportunity for them to grow or shine. These two conflicting goals have a way of mutating the other, and what results is a family-focused more on the results and vanity of sport at an age where development and enjoyment should be the overbearing drivers.

What’s ironic about this vicious cycle is that the children caught in the spin cycle of youth sport success tend to be the ones who burn out in high school when their pre-pubescent dominance doesn’t sustain for the next 10 years of their life. It leaves parents disappointed over an unrealistic expectation and children searching for identity during one of the most important developmental periods of their life.

The Aspen Institute, arguably the leading research group on youth sports in the United States, revealed in their annual report that youth sport participation is down Year over year, yet the youth sport economy is supposed to quadruple by 2026. With the privatization of “travel teams” and the lack of requirements around creating or leading youth teams, more organizations are subscribing the pay to play model and relying more on fancy uniforms and arbitrary rating models to convince families their 4-figure season dues are justified. As we continue to limit access to youth sport financially, we also create a feedback loop that required private organizations to continuously prove their value which is why so many of them lean heavily into ranking systems and recruiting track records.

So How Do We Change This?

Education is key when it comes to combatting the rising youth sport pitfalls. For starters, it’s important to know that no child is going to make a name for themselves at age 10. One may experience positive feedback in their own echo chamber and feel that the attention extends beyond their own horizon, but I have no current or historical evidence of youth sports popularity translating to professional success.

Second, families should understand how the scholarship systems work in college and understand the true impact of NIL in college. The truth is, outside of the six headcount sports, students can’t expect an athletic scholarship to eliminate their financial woes in college. Athletic money is less available and fickler than any merit or academic aid a student can earn, and should always be seen as a supplementary scholarship opportunity rather than a ticket to college. You can always find examples of student-athletes defying this rule of thumb, but using an outlier story to justify a decision is never a good choice in any discipline. When it comes to Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities in college, families shouldn’t mistake the ability to make money with the guarantee of making money. NIL is famously misrepresented to families in its current infancy stage, but the facts remain that the vast majority of NIL activation is done for free merch, small affiliate percentages, or home-grown opportunities like camps and lessons back home during the holidays. While it’s a great opportunity for student-athletes, it’s not something to rely on.