Athletics

The professionalization of college athletics is a thorny issue, one that we addressed in a recent blog post on Boston College’s current football team. We pointed out that many of the elite players on BC’s football team this year, such as star quarterback Matt Ryan, are no longer really students because they have… more

...Since coming into existence in 1906, the NCAA has struggled with its basic charter -- identifying and maintaining the correct balance between athletics and academics.In recent years, the NCAA has established the Academic Progress Rate (APR), which creates a baseline measurement of retention and graduation rates its member schools must meet or risk the forfeiture of scholarships.One might question the logic of taking away scholarships from underachieving athletic programs, but that's another matter.And obviously,… more

Yesterday, Higher Ed Watch unveiled its first "Academic Bowl Championship Series" poll, which ranked the current top teams in college football using academic instead of athletic indicators. In developing the Academic BCS poll, we took advantage of all of the data that is publicly available on college athletes’ academic… more

In a few days, hooded figures manipulating mysterious computer formulas will announce the final BCS standings and the lineup for college football's prestigious bowl games. Records, opponents, conference affiliations, polls and, it always seems, the phases of the moons of Saturn will be taken into account. But what if academics were factored in, too? What if there were an A/BCS -- an Academics-Included Bowl Championship Series?

I put that question to Lindsey Luebchow, a policy analyst of the New America Foundation… more

At the end of every college football season, there’s an uproar about the "Bowl Championship Series" (BCS) formula that decides which teams get to play for the National Championship and in various bowl games. This year is no different—sports commentators are in a tizzy about which teams will… more

Last week, we highlighted a couple of big-time college football teams struggling on the field but excelling in the classroom. We suggested it might be difficult, if not impossible, for teams to maintain stellar athletic and academic records given the time constraints and pressures on student-athletes. Are there… more

Two weeks ago, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln fired its athletic director, Steve Pederson, after the football team started the season 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 conference. Following three more losses, Nebraska’s perennially dominant football team has now been outscored 150 to 59 by… more

Last year, oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens broke the all-time record for gift-giving to a university athletics program when he donated $165 million to Oklahoma State University, his alma mater. Not only did OSU's sports program benefit, but Pickens himself received a large subsidy from the government because he was… more

Yesterday, we highlighted the poor performance of college football players in the classroom and discussed the NCAA’s academic reform efforts. After this season, the NCAA will have finished collecting all of its academic progress rate (APR) data on Division I colleges and is slated to implement a full… more

As the college football season kicks into high gear, it’s hard not to get caught up in or at least be exposed to the insane promotion of big-time college athletics. Many of us watch and read around-the-clock media commentary that glorifies college football players for their… more