Flying across the country? I think in general that is considered a 'perk'.

College jobs are not related to your major(unless youre a paid intern which means youre pretty lucky), meaning its literally only for the money. I assume practice has some practical use to their future.

From my experience (which yes, I know, anecdotal means nothing), athletes have it easy. The only thing they have to do is go to practice, everything else falls into their lap.

I was a roommate with a basketball 'shining star' as he called himself. I really dont even see why colleges pretend to support athletes that dont care about their education. Sit in the back and read off the study guide the answers to the test? Check. Give your homework to the 'student instruction' workers? Check. Attend class 1 time a month? Check. Receive incredible amounts of money? Check. This is a guy who the first day at the college, he invited 6 random strangers to the dorm, 2 of which were doing Oxycontin(sp?) and the rest playing beer pong at age 17.