College Sports in the US
College
sports in the United States are a huge deal. Almost all major American
universities have football, baseball, basketball and hockey programs, and devote
millions of dollars each year to sports. Most of them earn millions
(51) as well, in television revenues, sponsorships. They also
benefit (52) from the added publicity they get via their
teams. Big-name universities (54) each other in the most
popular sports. Football games at Michigan regularly draw crowds of over 90,000.
Basketball’s national collegiate championship game is a TV (54) on a par
with(与……相同或相似)any other sporting event in the United States, (55)
perhaps the Super Bowl itself. At any given time during fall or winter
one can (56) one’s TV set and see the top athletic
programs—from schools like Michigan, UCLA, Duke and Stanford— (57)
in front of packed houses and national TV audiences.
The athletes themselves are recruited and provided with scholarships.
College coaches identify (58) teenagers and then go into high
schools to (59) the country’s best players to attend their
universities. There are strict rules about (60) coaches can
recruit—no recruiting calls after 9 p. m., only one official visit to a campus —
but they are often bent and sometimes (61) . Top college
football programs offer scholarships to 20 or 30 players each year, and those
student-athletes, when they arrive (62) campus, receive free
housing, tuition, meals, books, etc.
In return, the players
(63) the program in their sports. Football players at top
colleges (64) two hours a day, four days a week from January
to April. In summer, it’s back to strength and agility training four days a week
until mid-August, when camp (65) and preparation for the
opening of the September-to-December season begins. During the season, practices
last two or three hours a day from Tuesday to Friday. Saturday is game day.
Mondays are an officially mandated day of rest. |
