Since junior Tyler Morris’ freshman season, when he was named America East Rookie of the Year, Morris has been an integral member of the Boston University men’s basketball team. But the guard is also a vital cog in a different team ‘-‘- one made up of fellow School of Management students.

Most mornings, Morris trades his jersey and scarlet shorts for a shirt and tie. He talks numbers ‘-‘- instead of Xs and Os ‘-‘- with his Cross Functional Core Program teammates. The meetings involve as much strategy and planning as basketball practice requires.

For Morris, who is double majoring in accounting and finance, and hundreds of other student-athletes at BU, striking a balance between academic expectation and athletic performance is necessary for achieving success in each. Student-athletes must remain in good academic standing with their school or university in order to stay eligible to compete.

‘It gets hard sometimes because. . .when you’re done with practice you’re tired and you don’t want to do any work. Or you’ve been in class all day and you get to practice and you’re tired because you’ve been up all morning doing work. But you’ve just got to try the best you can to keep them balanced,’ Morris said.

Though sometimes difficult to achieve, finding that balance between athlete and student is something that the BU athletics department emphasizes.

Student v. Athlete

There is a huge difference between being a student-athlete and being a student at BU, men’s hockey head coach Jack Parker said.

‘When you come [to BU] to play hockey, wrestle or basketball, in reality you’re a student with a full-time job,’ he said. ‘I don’t think anybody else realizes the time and effort that’s put into a varsity athlete here if you’re not one.’

But the university makes up for athletes’ demanding schedules, Parker said. For example, BU allows student-athletes to register early for classes or take classes in the Metropolitan College to ensure they complete their academic requirements around afternoon practices. Coaches set mandatory study hall hours to make sure their athletes are getting their work done. Athletes are also given personal academic advisers.

‘These athletes get so much more help than the regular student,’ Parker said.

Junior defenseman Eric Gryba said it takes a lot of work to balance classes, games, practice and a social life while being a student-athlete. Finding the right mix between being a student and being an athlete can take a while, Gryba added.

‘The freshmen coming in right now are figuring out it takes at least a semester to really figure it out. There’s a balance of what you need to do between homework and school. You can lean [too much] either way: too much hockey or focus too much on school.’

Some athletes, like hockey senior captain John McCarthy, have mastered balancing classes with hockey. Last year, the Andover, Mass., native won the Regina Eilberg Scholarship, a team award given to the player who succeeds the most on the ice and in the classroom.

‘It’s a good honor,’ McCarthy said of the award. ‘You don’t often get recognized for what you do in the classroom. People just see you on the ice and that’s it. It’s nice to be recognized and have people know you’re also a student here.’

The university prides itself on being an institution of both high academic achievement and athletic excellence. BU athletics has a 95 percent Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rate, well above the overall Division ‘- I average of 78 percent, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The men’s basketball team holds a 100 percent Graduation Success Rate ‘-‘- 20 percent higher than the federal rate, according to the NCAA.’

Men’s basketball coach Dennis Wolff stresses academics to his players. If a player has to take a class that runs into practice time, that player leaves practice early or comes late. Wolff said he doesn’t hesitate to discipline a player who is not performing well in the classroom.

‘The discipline varies based on the guy, the history and all that,’ Wolff said. ‘Three years ago, I had a couple of guys that, for the first time since I’ve been coach, that I asked to leave and in those situations. . .we had tried everything and it wasn’t working. It just wasn’t the right school for them.’

Junior guard Corey Lowe takes Wolff’s academic priorities seriously.

‘I think here, more than at other schools, the academics play a real large role in what you can do and how your time will be spent,’ Lowe said. ‘You know you’re not going to make it here if you don’t do your work.’

Phil DeCarlo, director of Student-Athlete Support Services at BU believes the most important people in athletes’ academic careers are coaches.

‘If the coach doesn’t care if the student goes to class, if the coach doesn’t care if they’re not doing their homework. . .the student’s not going to care,’ DeCarlo said.

Stopping the stereotypes

BU professor John Barnard often has athletes ‘-‘- specifically hockey players ‘-‘- in his American literature class. He has a 24-hour notification policy about late work and missing assignments or class.

When it comes to athletes, Barnard said he does not remember them falling behind more than other students because of games and practices.

‘I have a limited amount of assignments: two papers and two exams. I think it would be difficult to get around doing only those, but it could probably be done,’ he said. ‘Athletes have not fallen behind with any greater regularity than anybody else.’

Like Barnard, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Athletic Enhancement Center Director Adam Naylor, who teaches two sports psychology classes, often has athletes in his classes.

‘The biggest challenge [for the athlete] is travel and practice schedule ‘- where it has to be balanced,’ Naylor said. ‘When you’re going home for vacation, it’s tough to open a text book. So if you go on the road for a road trip it’s the same thing as going home for Thanksgiving break and saying, ‘I’m going to get all this work done.”

Student-athletes who want to do well in class will take the extra time to sit down and meet with him ‘-‘- just like any other student, Naylor said. Attending class on little sleep because of an early practice is similar to a student who stayed up all night studying for an exam, he said.’

Support Services also works with the athletes to help them budget their time and communicate with their professors concerning practice and travel schedules. At the beginning of each semester, athletes provide their professors with travel letters detailing their schedule and work out any conflicts they may have with assignments or exams.

While there is a stereotype of athletes being ‘dumb jocks,’ it is not always the case, Naylor said.

‘[I] had an athlete say to me last semester, ‘Well if you had been treated like you were stupid your whole life you might as well stick with it.’ I was like, I guess that makes sense. That explains a lot of what I’ve seen over the last 10 years.’

Naylor added that it didn’t surprise him as an educator because it is so easy to blame the student first and not necessarily the culture.

‘The sports culture can create something funky,’ he said ‘But it’s not always the athlete’s fault. Sometimes it’s the culture’s fau< sometimes it's our fault as professors. So like anything in life, you have to be careful pointing the finger too quick.' Naylor said student-athletes should take academics seriously because athletic dreams can often fall through. He referred to Ryan Whitney, his former student who now plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League. Though Whitney left before his senior year, Naylor said the hockey player understood the value of a college degree. ‘What people don’t know is that every summer afterwards he was here taking classes,’ Naylor said. ‘[He] did it knowing this is important. I hope any athlete would realize BU would still let them get an education. We know how tough it is when you’re away for a long time.’