Athletes skipping college trend

Trends & Culture: Topic Proposal

Please respond to the questions below and copy/paste the text into a blog entry.
Do NOT upload this document.

1. What is your topic and how does it relate to the overall theme of trends and culture?
My topic is the trend of high school or college athletes skipping one or more years of school in order to go professional and earn quick money.

2. What is the main controversy? Who are the participants in the debate?
Should athletes get their full education, or if the opportunity arises, skip getting an education in order to earn money faster? Participants in this debate are mainly the athletes themselves and the immediate family surrounding them.

3. Please list all the causes/effects you intend to explore in your essay. Obviously, you might come up with other causes/effects based on your research, but it is useful to know what you have to start with.
Some causes of this trend are fame, glory, fast money earning, the risk of getting hurt, family stability situation, and academic failure. Some effects of this trend include athletes that are not quite ready for professional competition and the desire for athletes to go back to college.

4. What approach will you be using? Please explain if you plan to combine approaches.
I will be looking back to the past to determine why this trend has prevailed in society today. But, I might also make predictions about the future based on what many athletes have gone through in the past.

5. What information will you be looking for as you start researching the topic?
I will start by looking up statistics on collegiate athletes that have gone professional and also will look at specific athletes' situations. I will mainly use the internet as my main source.