<p>Stickershock, to say that some colleges have forgotten the student part of the student-athlete is the negative way of looking at things.</p>
<p>However there is a positive way of looking at the stats. Some Div 1 colleges are willing to give a few highly recruited student athletes a college opportunity that they would otherwise not have recognizing that there is a greater probability that they will not graduate compared to the overall student body. </p>
<p>Another factor is that a higher percentage of student athletes transfer to other colleges if their playing opportunities do not meet their expectations. I went to Ohio State and there was a scholarship f’ball player on my dorm floor who was a good student but did not play a single down in four years because he ticked off coach Hayes his freshman year. </p>
<p>And perhaps the most frequent reason that so many f’ball and b’ball players do not graduate is that during the season they do not take full load schedules so that they are short credit hours when their college athletic eligibility is completed. For academically unmotivated students, the preference is to drop out shy of graduation.</p>
<p>The fact is that the graduation rate problem largely exists in the big men’s programs of football and basketball. The graduation of the other mens and womens teams are, in aggregate, on a par with the overall student body. And anyone who has been around Div 1 storts knows that for many of the recruited football and b’ball players, the focus is on their sport 24/7. And the colleges offer these players more academic support that the typical nonathlete gets.</p>
<p>It is my opinion that there is a symbiotic relationship between big time college sports and some of the athletes they recruit. For those who graduate it is a fulfilled opportunity which would not have been otherwise available to them. For those who fail to graduate, a vast share of the blame rests with the students themselves.</p>