Academic Performance of Non-Scholarship Athletes

The College Sports Project, an initiative of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has again shed light on the academic performance of athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s non-scholarship Division III. Wednesday, the project, now entering its fifth year, released its latest report, which includes information on more than 83,000 athletes at 84 institutions. Among the report’s highlights, female athletes have higher grade point averages than male athletes. In addition, athletes who were recruited prior to admission had lower GPAs than athletes who were not recruited and non-athletes at their same institution; this was especially the case at “the most highly selective colleges.” As the NCAA does not gather much academic data on athletes in Division III, the overview provided by this project is one of few insights athletics watchdogs have into the little-examined division. NCAA officials have criticized the project in the past, however, arguing that its small sample size prevents it from offering an accurate picture of academic performance within the large division, which has more than 450 member institutions ranging from large state institutions to small, selective liberal arts colleges.