Colleges Push Athletes Down Easy Path To Maintain Eligibility
The NCAA's "toughening of academic requirements for athletes has helped create an environment in which they are more likely to graduate than other students -- but also more likely to be clustered in programs without the academic demands most students face," according to Steeg, Upton, Bohn & Berkowitz in a front-page cover story for USA TODAY. Some athletes indicated that they have "pursued -- or have been steered to -- degree programs that helped keep them eligible for sports but didn't prepare them for post-sports careers." A USA Today study, examining the majors of juniors and seniors at all 120 FBS schools and 22 other Division I schools with "standout men's or women's basketball teams," showed athletes at many schools "clustering in certain majors, in some cases at rates highly disproportionate to those of all students." The study involved '07-08 rosters at the 142 schools for five sports -- football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball. Clustering appears to be an "unintended consequence of NCAA schools' decisions to make it easier for athletes to become eligible to play as a freshman but harder for them to remain eligible in later years." NCAA President Myles Brand: "Clustering by itself is replicated in many parts of the university. It's not necessarily bad. But when you have extreme clustering ... you really do have to ask some hard questions: Is there an adviser who's pushing students into this? Are there some faculty members who are too friendly with the student-athletes?"
Tadman Says Athletes Go To School To
Stay In Sports, Not To Earn A Degree
UNDER PRESSURE: The NCAA in '03 instituted The 40-60-80 Rule, which stipulates that for athletes to stay eligible, they "must complete 40% of their degree work by the end of their second year of enrollment, 60% by the end of their third year and 80% by the end of their fourth year." Under previous regulations, the standards were 25%, 50% and 75%, respectively, and the "increased demands for progress toward a degree have been accompanied by reduced requirements for incoming athletes to be eligible to play as freshman." As a result of the NCAA's "complex requirements, which often differ from those of a university or individual academic department, academic advisers are involved in many athletes' course selections." Former Kansas State Univ. football player Steven Cline, who graduated with a degree in social science, said, "I look back and say, 'Well, what did I really go to college for? Crap classes you won't use the rest of your life?' Social science is really nothing specific. ... I was majoring in football." Former Boise State Univ. football player Marty Tadman: "You hear which majors, and which classes, are the easiest and you take them. You're going to school so you can stay in sports. You're not going for a degree. ... It's a joke." Georgia Tech men's basketball coach Paul Hewitt said when the NCAA four years ago discussed the APR system at an ACC meeting, "almost every coach said: 'You understand what you're basically telling us. We're going to encourage our kids to take the easiest path to eligibility.'" Hewitt: "So if I'm at Georgia Tech, I'm not going to tell a young man he can't major in engineering. But I certainly will counsel him before he takes that first class" (USA TODAY, 11/19).
