Athletics vs. Education… Bridging the Gap

Aimee Turner

It has been a long held rivalry between academics and athletics on many college campuses. Many have argued that athletes and athletic programs receive special attention and leniency when it comes to the educational standards of certain colleges. Moreover, there has been reasonable evidence that athletes in college are poorly prepared for life after college. Is it because too much emphasis is placed on collegiate athlete’s stamina and ability to compete rather than their educational and life-long survival skills? Many have gone as far as to say that most college stars are unprepared for anything but a professional sports career that only two to three percent of them will ever achieve.

This has been an issue on many college campuses for decades; however, at the turn of the century, more is being done to ensure that college athletes are eligible for collegiate education as well as for success afterwards. The NCAA has increased the eligibility requirements for NCAA collegiate athletes. The NCAA is now allowing student-athletes to offset low SAT and ACT scores with higher high school grade-point averages. The NCAA raised the number of required high school core courses they must complete to 16, and they have toughened progress-toward degree requirements once they're in college. The penalties for not meeting standards range from scholarship cuts to restricting practice to postseason bans.

The NCAA incentive for implementing these new guidelines is to increase the graduation rate of athletes. The graduation rate is up to 78% in all sports in Division I. Moreover, while the football and men's basketball continue to fall behind, they have steadily increased from 65% to 67% in major-college football and from 58% to 62% in basketball.

In light of everything the NCAA is doing to ensure that high-school athletes are eligible for collegiate sports and life, there should still be more done to ease the transition of athletes into campus life and collegiate education. Maybe courses, seminars, and programs about adjusting should be in order? Whatever the case may be, the increase in graduation rates in collegiate athletes seems promising. I only hope that the gap between athletics and education continues to decline.