How much class time...?

Players miss class often on Fridays when they travel and once in a while if there's a long ride to a midweek game. My son attends a pretty good academic university and you will see a lot of players on their computers in hotel lobbies keeping up with classwork on trips. They figure it out.

This year regulars season my guy will have 4 midweek games on the road when they miss the entire day of class plus four long road trips where they will likely leave Thursday PM missing all of Friday and returning generally in the wee hours of Sunday mornings. While they can and usually do get to class those Monday's they have limited productivity.

Once they get to their conference championships they will miss 3 days of class (this is usually the week before finals). They generally travel on Wednesday (depending on the availability of flights) and return Sunday late.

If you add it all up it works out to be 11 days of class. The real impact comes when they do 7 days of real work (papers, exams and projects) during a 3 day window during the season. It took my guy 2 full seasons to learn how to both schedule classes and to maximize his productivity on campus.

As noted above---they figure it out---that is if they truly want it

It really depends on the schedule and that can vary widely. Last March my son only went to class 8 days due to spring break and road trips.

It's up to the student to meet with each professor/teacher to make them aware of the missed class time. He found all his teachers to be very accommodating but not all professors are this way. The student athlete learns to budget his time and do homework on the road. Usually you'll see the players in hotel conference room with their laptops and sometimes they still have mandatory study hall on the road.

They figure it out if they want to be successful and may not take the hardest classes during the spring.

It varies greatly for each program and type of program. Some players are home more because they host more games, some players have to travel more in early season due to colder weather. As far as practice in spring, in son's program practice was later in the afternoon (just like games) and they were required to be there.

Monday was a required NCAA day off during season, so son had more classes on that day than others, with one on friday only one year and didn't miss a lot of classes over the years. The players should be told in advance of their schedule, so they know how to pick classes or work closely with an athletic advisor if they have one.

IMO, this is something that should be discussed during the recruiting period. I agree most figure it out, but you know your player better than anyone and a discussion needs to take place about time management and personal responsibility. They have to realize that they are also there (not just play baseball) to go to class, stay eligible and hopefully earn their degree within a reasonable time frame.

At many schools they miss Thursday and Friday classes for weekend road trips. A couple of time last year my son left school around 7:00 on Thursday and got home around 2:00-3:00 a.m. on Monday.

Another factor is the major he is in. If he's in one of the common sports majors like "parks & rec managment" or "communications" he will be better able to structure his schedule so as to minimize lost class time. However, this is a LOT more difficult in some majors where there is only one class/section of a required course, and the times for that class conflicts with baseball. This is very common with science classes, especially those that have labs.

I go to school in the northeast, and we travel south to start the season. I miss class for the amount of time we are south (comes out to 6 class days). Then throughout the season we usually play Tuesday/Wednesday non-conference games and weekend conference games. Depending on home or away determines how much class we miss. Last year we had a lot of home games, this year a lot of away.

At my school, professors are notified via email from the athletic dept. of days to be missed, and we are given official forms several weeks prior to the game to give to the professor. Since it is a legally excused absence, professors are required to work with us on rescheduling any conflicts on assignments or exams. Usually if a player is very upfront and proactive in working with the professor, the professors are pretty good with everything.

It does pile up on you, but if you manage your time you'll be alright. There's plenty of time on buses and planes to get an assignment done. And now-a-days with everything being accessible online, communication with a professor from an away game is not difficult.

The Monday off does help.Most of sons teammates all have at least one Monday evening class.Many are taking an elective on line as well.That's 2/4 classes accounted for.
Also if possible try not to have a Friday class.Sometimes its not doable but really opens up the weekend.

My son said that it took 3 semesters to figure it out but this semester was by FAR his best.

4 of his classes, M-F, don't begin until 11am. His other class is an online class. No class at all on fridays.

His coach told him last week that he and the other 2 conference starters would only be traveling with the team on the weekend away games. So he has during the week to study, do homework, etc. while the team is away during the week at Non-conference games. He's pretty pumped that he won't be missing any class time on fridays for travel and/or home games. It's good to see them finally figure it out on their own.

Thanks for the responses. Not sure if you guys remember. Son is also being recruited to play football. The football coaches know he is being recruited for baseball, and they've all made it a point to tell him (and me) he 'would be missing a lot of class-time' if he played baseball. Seems like there is some truth to that. I guess careful attention to scheduling is most important.