<p>What a huge disparity in how schools value student-athletes and some forget that pesky student part. Black athlete (football discussed here) graduation rates are terrible at many schools:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/06/college_footballs_winners_and_losers/?p1=MEWell_Pos2[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/06/college_footballs_winners_and_losers/?p1=MEWell_Pos2</a></p>
<p>– but not Boston College – 96% graduation rate!</p>
<p>Wrong comparison groups. Need to compare against Black non-athletes from the same economic class. (All of a sudden, the gap shrinks massively.)</p>
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<p>What black non-athletes from the same economic class? The ones attending the Big 10 and SEC schools? Yes, probably all six of them have a pretty low graduation rate.</p>
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I don’t agree with this sentiment. All scholarship athletes are treated differently from the general student body. Their training/travel schedules have to be accomodated, and the unique talents they bring to the college is the rationale for dropping admissions standards. Some colleges are really beyond the pale in how low they can go. A non-athlete black kid would be unlikely to squeak by admissions with some of the poor preparation a typical Ohio State black football player will bring to campus. </p>
<p>I think too many black kids are lured into playing college ball with dreams of NFL, NBA, whatever. Their “payment” for their services at the college is an education. These numbers show that they are not getting one. Are they being duped? I think in many cases they are, if they come from unsophisticated homes. What these kids really need is remedial academic preparation. And an honest presentation of the extremely thin odds of any professional sports career in their futures.</p>
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I think the answer to your question is your first sentence. If your primary motivation for going to college is to play professionally, that certainly puts graduating as a low priority. So is it the college’s fault for not getting them to graduate or is it the athlete’s fault?</p>
<p>I see your point, ff. I just believe that some of these colleges take advantage of unsophisticated people. True, it isn’t too hard to figure out which colleges have joke majors for athletes & terrible graduation rates on top of that. But that level of savvy is beyond some of these families. Completely unprepared or illiterate athletes have no place on a college campus.</p>
<p>My school had to dismiss a few players due to off-field legal problems. None of these players came in with known problems but sometimes young men get stupid. These count against the grad rate. So do the players each year who go early to the NFL. Then there are transfers out to lower division schools to get more playing time–usually at least a couple per year. So out of a class of 20 recruits you can lose 20-30% of the class to non-academic problems and this kills the grad rate.</p>
<p>“Completely unprepared or illiterate athletes have no place on a college campus.”</p>
<p>I definitely agree with that and sadly find all too many that seem to fall into that category.</p>