College Football Not Making the Grade

[Dr. Bob]

Giving a student athlete SIX years to graduate, stats were compiled on football player graduation rate from the 56 teams in bowl games in 2004.

28 of the 56 teams will not reach 50% of scholarship football players graduate.

Some - like Pitt, Louisville or Minnesota will only have about 25% or less of Black football players ever graduate. Less than 1 in 4!

Notre Dame and Syracuse have almost 80% of players earn degrees!

Overall 45% of black players will earn a degree; 65% of white players.

The system is not working. Ideas?

 

[NateT]

How about requiring that players who do not graduate be forced to return a percentage of their scholarship dollars?

Or require that part of the conditions of atheletic scholarships is that the student maintains a pace to graduate in X years (5 or 6 should be fine.) For about 130 hours you can get almost any undergrad degree. So you would need to pass about 11 hours a semester to graduate in 6 years. Not just take, but pass classes that count towards graduation. If you don't do that, you lose your scholarship till next year.

For those players who leave early they'll get a big enough signing bonus they can repay their scholarship money, for those who aren't NFL caliber football players, it should be motivation to finish their degree.

And if they don't pay? Treat it like any other company would with non-payment.

 

[Jimmy C]

How many college football players actually ever make the pros - very very few. Coaches dont really care if thier players graduate - to the detriment of the players. The coaches only care about winning football games - and if they dont look up Ty Willingham in your dictionary. The job of playing football on a division I campus is at least a 40 hour a week job 52 weeks a year. for any kid to graduate is an unbelievable feat.

Any penalty needs to be paid by the institution, or the coaches. The schools (except for SMU of the 80s) get the players for the cheap price of a scholarship. the players are meat, and are easily discarded if they dont contribute.

Why not tie a coaches pay to the number of graduates they produce, not the number of games they win - fat chance.

But I really have no opinion on the subject!

 

[Pastor Larry]

Bob,

I wonder how those numbers compare to non football or non sports players. Do you think that non athletic students graduate at a higher rate, in terms of percentage of incoming class that graduates?

I think there ought to be a minimum GPA and class attendance requirement. Of course, you have to have enforcement which probably wouldn't happen until there are stiff sanctions.

And scholarships should be loans to players who turn professional. Let them give back something.

 

[Alcott]

The schools (except for SMU of the 80s) get the players for the cheap price of a scholarship.

There was a certain halfback named Dickerson who played for SMU in the 80's who once revealed that the most he was offered to sign with a school was $40,000. He claims he did not take the offer. Anyone who followed recruiting in that region then was aware, though, that SMU's biggest competitor for his legs was Oklahoma. SMU must have offered less money but more of something else.

As for graduation rates, I never trust the figures anyone promulgates, as these are easily manipulated. Nebraska has often boasted about high graduation rates, but their football team often has 130 or more members, a large number of them walk-ons who never see action, but just want to be part of 'Big Red.' And any school that allows a large number of walk-ons to be technically "on the team" is also going to have a lot of them quit the team before they are seniors to focus more on the purpose of education and stop pretending to be athletes. Thus, the more walk-ons, the higher the graduation rates.

One reason many athletes do not graduate is contact with agents before their senior season. If many agents are constantly vying to get them to sign up, they know the pros are interested in them. So they just register for enough credits to be eligible to play, then don't even bother to attend class, as failure in the current semester cannot deter them from playing the next season when they will no longer be eligible anyway. If they had been at least average students before then, there is no way you can blame the athletic department for this circumstance; that is, without expecting them to quarantine the players year around.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Originally posted by Pastor Larry:
Bob, I wonder how those numbers compare to non football or non sports players. Do you think that non athletic students graduate at a higher rate, in terms of percentage of incoming class that graduates?

I think there ought to be a minimum GPA and class attendance requirement. Of course, you have to have enforcement which probably wouldn't happen until there are stiff sanctions.

And scholarships should be loans to players who turn professional. Let them give back something.

Here is a sampling tracking the graduating classes that began 1994-1997 and had 6 years to graduate. School and percentage of Black Football Players who graduated/White Football Players who graduated/General Student Population who graduated in those classes:</font>

• MINNESOTA/27% black players/40% white players/52% all students</font>
• CAL/42% black players/59% white players/84% all students</font>
• FLORIDA STATE/43% black players/71% white players/62% all students</font>
• NOTRE DAME/76% black players/76% white players/94% all students</font>
• LSU/35% black players/61% white players/55% all students</font>
• OKLAHOMA/35% black players/48% white players/55% all students</font>
• TEXAS A&M/44% black players/59% white players/73% all students</font>
• MICHIGAN/47% black players/70% white players/84% all students</font>
• PITT/20% black players/48% white players/63% all students</font>

 

[NateT]

One reason many athletes do not graduate is contact with agents before their senior season.

Agents are slightly worse than lawyers in my opinion. There are at least some valid reasons to go to a lawyer (estate planning, wills, etc)

I like the idea of the coaches being penalized. That's a novel idea. I know coaches have a lot of influence over the students, but the student is still supposed to be an "Adult" if they can't decide whether they should try to make the pros, or get a college education, then I don't think it is the coaches fault. Perhaps an alternative would be to give the coaches a lower base pay and a bonus for graduting % (although, that just fuels "tutors" taking tests for the players.)

I think the Scholarhip = Loan if you turn pro/don't graduate is a good idea.

I'd initially think scrap all scholarships, but there are some people who look at playing sports as their only way to get to go to college, even though they will never play pro. Those are the guys I want to get the scholarships. People that look at the NCAA as minor league football can look at their school as an "agent" and pay a finders fee to them when they turn pro.

 

[Jimmy C]

Alcott,

A friend of mine actually played w/DickerJames (Eric dickerson, Craig James) back in the day. One of the big jokes on campus was the trans am that dickerson "had use" of whle he was a student. After he was gone the trans am stayed - albeit a bit beat up, for a year or two - some of the football players would use it after that!

also reminds me of a story from one of Dan Jenkins' books - a college football coach asked a player what number he wanted to wear for his school - the reply - about $30,000

 

[EaglewingIS4031]

Ya'll are missing the point. the point of the scholarship is for the athlete to make money for the University's athletic program. I like college football, but let's not kid ourselves it is just a farm system for the NFL. The money universities get from the football supports all the other athletic programs, so that real student athletes, such as those that play sports like badmitton and fencing can graduate. Universities giving scholarships to developing football players is a cheaper system (for the NFL)than paying salaries in a minor league like the MLB does.

 

[Dale]

Originally posted by EaglewingIS4031:
Ya'll are missing the point. the point of the scholarship is for the athlete to make money for the University's athletic program. I like college football, but let's not kid ourselves it is just a farm system for the NFL. The money universities get from the football supports all the other athletic programs, so that real student athletes, such as those that play sports like badmitton and fencing can graduate. Universities giving scholarships to developing football players is a cheaper system (for the NFL)than paying salaries in a minor league like the MLB does.

I quite agree.
In fact, when it comes down to it, why do people go to college anyway? To prepare for CAREERS! If you are a football player going to the NFL, performance on the ball field IS the measurement of academic success. A star quarterback that can't keep his grades up but keeps the tickets selling is a success and IS paying back his scholarship.

I am not saying I think it is all right, I am saying that this is how it works. It is all about money, some play to learn another profession, some play to go on to the pros. In any case, they are WORKING for the University and should be compensated, whether or not they have good grades.
For instance, if a guy puts a new roof on your house, do you care how much about brain sugery he knows???Probably not. Colleges don't care how much a guy that can win ball games knows about xyz.

 

[FriendofSpurgeon]

Dr. Bob,

Don't know if I agree with you since you are mixing apples and oranges in your comparisons.

At first, you want to compare graduation rates between football players with the general student population. Then you further break out the football population by race, but do not do that for the general population.

On average, the six year graduation rate for the universities that have teams in the bowl games is about 55%. There are only a few schools that have football team graduation rates (including all athletes - black, white, brown, whatever) that are higher than the average student population.

Could it be that football players have the relatively same graduation rate of others that are of the same race? If so, this may be a racial/social issue, not a football issue.

Even if the graduation rates are lower, it would not be a surprise. It would be very difficult to carry a full academic load given the expectations of today's athletes, the year-round training/practices, and the constant travel during the season. Personally, I'm surprised that the graduation rate is that high. For me, college was hard enough and all I did was go to class (OK, that wasn't ALL I did, but you get the point).