Comments on Drawing the Line

• New NCAA academic progress rules
• Posted by Jonathan Cohen on August 4, 2006 at 6:20am EDT

• With the announcement of the new Academic Progress Report (APR) rules reported in this article, a lot of people are going to believe that we are headed to a new era of virtue in college athletics. Unfortunately, there are many reasons for poor academic progress of athletes in the big money producing sports, men's basketball and football, and it is difficult to see how the new rules will make things better.

  The first thing to realize is that men's basketball and football are big time entertainment products. That is not a bad thing as many people enjoy watching and those who participate enjoy playing. But it also a billion dollar business that employs tens of thousands of people. Being able to fund such programs is greatly facilitated by the big television packages that are negotiated by the NCAA and the individual conferences and schools. Furthermore, the amount of money that schools receive is very much determined by the performance of both their teams and their conference.

  Like the professional sports of basketball, football, baseball and hockey, some amount of athletic parity greatly enhances the entertainment value of the product, particularly the biggest money maker of them all, the men's NCAA basketball tournament. The rules for drafting players and free agents and the imposition of salary caps were introduced in professional sports to level the playing field and to give all teams a reasonable chance to compete. This created a far more competitive playing field and created a great deal more interest in the games and made them far more profitable.

  The NCAA also has a stake in leveling the playing field. Restrictions on recruiting, eligibility rules, restrictions on the number of scholarships, rules around receiving gifts, and now the APR have to be viewed in part as a way for the NCAA to ensure that as many schools as possible have a fair chance to compete.

  There are many reasons for student athletes' failure to make academic progress. In many cases they are similar to why other students do not make academic progress.

  1. Athletic scholarships have historically given access to higher education to students from some of the most economically disadvantaged students. This is a good thing as many of these students would never have had the motivation or opportunity to go to college otherwise. But many of these students are academically disadvantaged as well.

  Realistically, students from academically poor backgrounds struggle more in college and have poorer grades, higher drop out and lower graduation rates. Athletes have more motivation to succeed academically and the school is invested in them so they are provided a good deal of academic support. On balance, athletic departments are way ahead of the curve on creating access for academically and economically disadvantaged kids.

  Clearly the message from the new APR rules is to be less inclined to recruit athletes who are academically marginal. Perhaps this is a good idea but if it is, then this goes double for non athletes from similar backgrounds as they will never get the level of academic support available to athletes.

  2. Athletics are important career paths for many athletes, particularly for those who compete in division 1 basketball. A high percentage of players who start in the top forty or fifty basketball programs end up employed in ways that are directly related to their participation in sports. The idea that it is the NBA or nothing is simply wrong. College basketball players are competing all over the world in leagues on almost every continent and are paid far more than the average college graduate. Others develop careers in coaching or athletic administration of one sort or another. Others develop contacts from their athletic careers that enable them to get jobs in business that otherwise would be difficult for them to obtain.

  In much of the discussion around the question of academic progress, there is an implicit assumption that student athletes are being exploited if they haven't taken full advantage of the academics offerred to them. The same might be said of the rest of the student body. Many pay tuition and don't have a great deal of interest in their studies and flunk out or barely get by. But there is a greater understanding that for the case of the non athlete, this failure is the student's choice.

  If a student athlete is exceptional, there are professional opportunities available to him. If a college basketball player is a very good player who doesn't really like school, leaves with a poor academic record after one or two years and plays professionally in Europe or Asia making six figures or more, why should a school be penalized for this.

  This is not simply a hypothetical example. Athletic programs are often confronted with this kind of situation. How do you advise such a student? If you have a very good basketball player who doesn't like school and who has the opportunity to make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year playing abroad, are you being fair to the student if you are encouraging him to stay in school?

  The truth is that the one way that college athletes are exploited is that in high profile sports, star athletes produce vast amounts of entertainment revenue for which they are not compensated. While the vast majority of student athletes are more than adequately rewarded for their efforts by their scholarships, for the high profile basketball and football players, they are creating a multi-billion dollar entertainment product for which they are not being paid.

  Very few high profile college basketball players make it to graduation. This is because if they are really outstanding they can make millions of dollars in salary and endorsements as professional athletes. If they stay in college they can't even be taken out for a burger at McDonald's by an alumnus.

  This is an athletic problem. The phenomenon of players leaving early for the NBA has deteriorated the quality of intercollegiate basketball. But schools simply can't afford to turn college athletics into professional sports. It already is at the coaching level as prized coaches are now making seven figures. It would destroy college sports if schools had to pay millions of dollars to players in order to compete.

  This is not entirely bad because it means that if you are not one of the few high profile programs that chooses which McDonald's all-Americans it wants, then you have to recruit students athletes for their potential to both stay in school and develop their skills over a period of four years. This means hiring coaches who are more focused on teaching basketball than recruiting it. It also means having coaches who are loyal to their players and plan to stick with them to see them graduate.

  My point is that there are lots of reasons why student athletes do not complete their educations in a timely fashion. Making sure that athletic departments are concerned about their athletes academic progress is certainly important. But some student athletes struggle with school or drop out for reasons beyond the control of athletic departments. In some cases, common decency dictates advising students to do things that may end up getting schools to fall below the "900" score. Such cases are not hypothetical. They come up every year in most programs and it is not clear that the NCAA's one size fits all situations is the best way to handle them.

  I appreciate the sheer complexity of the pressures on college and can understand trying to make rules to prevent abuses. But from what I have observed of individual situations, the new rules may end up doing more harm than good.

• What is the purpose of higher education?
• Posted by jbjones on August 4, 2006 at 6:55am EDT

• Is it to SELL sports or to educate?
  Without education there will be no sports or any other means of entertainment assoociated with institutions of higher education.
  Focus -- focus -- focus -- our mission is education with other aspects of life to follow and enhance that experience; BUT first the student must experience the education.
  Right -- pollyanna view but look at the students coming out of high schools and then tell again the story that sports are the driver of educational opportunities.

• What is the purpose of higher education - more
• Posted by Gadfly at Large on August 4, 2006 at 8:55am EDT

• I am always bothered by the element of hypocrisy in discussions of athletes as students. They are not the only ones admitted – sometimes recruited with offers of scholarships – because of physical abilities. However, unlike performance majors in music, dance majors, theater arts majors in acting, maybe sculptors and painters too – they can earn few if any academic credits for doing something inherently non-scholarly at a level beyond the competency of most college students. Which is not to say that playing football, basketball, etc., well is less of a mental challenge than these others: playbooks vs. choreography, 3-point stance vs. 3rd position.

  Other than biases about the mental abilities of athletes – holdovers of 19th and early 20th century hypotheses about body types and brains, what are the differences that lead colleges to set men and women in intercollegiate athletics apart?

  So let’s stop providing academic credit for improvement on the violin or start giving a boost to a student’s GPA for a well-executed bunt.

• Educating the Whole Person
• Posted by John Thomas , Director of Public Relations at East-West University on August 4, 2006 at 1:10pm EDT

• There is a reason our everyday language is filled with sports analogies-- athletic competition requires strategy, teamwork, planning, execution, practice, dedication, and creativity. These are essential qualities for achieving success in business, social settings, and yes, even academics.

  It's not a coincidence that many of the best coaches are sought-after public speakers, authors, and motivators. It's not a coincidence that many students that participated in sports excell in the most competitive areas of business.

  As educators we shouldn't feel any shame whatsoever about producing well-rounded people equiped for business and social success. The criteria for success in academe, such as getting published in a scholarly journal or writing a Ph.D. thesis, is a poor gauge of our success as educators.

• Sports are okay.
• Posted by Larry on August 5, 2006 at 10:00am EDT

• Mr. Thomas,

  I am quite interested to know if you think that an undergraduate who publishes in a scholarly journal and, by the time he grades, has made a contribution to the literature, is somehow “less” of a success the college athlete, who, with the aid of “tutors” barely gets though. However, I like the general tone of your post, as it will allow me to tell people who get low grades that “Grades don’t matter” so long as you can run fast. (This doesn’t usually apply to women, because girls sports are not that important.)

  You raise a few interesting comments. However, I have to tell you that nobody really wants to hear what coaches have to say. They are hired to speak so that they can give autographs and such. People that matter humor them and like the “success” they might bring their favored team, but really they are clowns.

  I don’t see how being a “start” college athlete equates to success in academics. In “big time” college sports it is accepted that a “scholar athlete” is not there to obtain an education, but to bring the school glory. Sure they are not that smart. Sure they wouldn’t have gotten in anyway, but they draw positive attention to the school, so they are babied. (And sometimes their misbehavior is encouraged or tolerated, and they are treated better than non-athletes.)

  Finally, you should be aware that in some social settings, talking about college sports is considered a faux-pas, because it is considered an activity of the lower classes, and a way to “glad-hand” oneself into a place that they should not be. Some people go so far as to even equate “sports-talk” with homosexuality, but I think this is going a little too far.

  Anyway, I admire your energy and devotion to East-West University, and I will advise everyone I know that has little chance of ever completing a PhD thesis to attend your school. I will tell them that if they have any trouble getting passing grades to come to you (but, if they don't make the team that they should quit.)