My experience is nothing but anecdotal evidence. One cannot infer that all football players are uneducated or that teachers always pull strings for them based on their athletic status. However, a CNN study has found that between seven and 18 percent of college athletes playing revenue-sports read on an elementary school level. Even more common, athletes score lower on their standardized tests than the national average or lower than elementary reading level.
I don’t believe athletes are stupid. I think this is a flaw in our culture. From early in high school or even before, athletes are expected to devote all of their time to sports if they want to be serious about it. And yes, there’s a purpose to that — anyone who wants to be good at something needs to practice. But there are other time-consuming extracurricular activities that do not have the same issues associated with them, such as music and student leadership.
The problem is not only that athletes are expected to dedicate all of their time to sports but that they also internalize that sports are the only thing that matter. Schools are often willing to go easier on their athletes than other students. And since some athletes will get better grades than they deserve, those same athletes will not work as hard and thus will not learn as much as their peers.
The good high school athletes will get athletic scholarships to play in college, and often colleges will lower their admission standards to let good athletes in. Some athletes in the study were found to have had single-digit ACT scores. That would make it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for a non-athlete to get into even the least selective colleges. But universities get a lot of revenue from athletics, so they will lower their standards to cash in.
When the athletes get into college, they struggle in classes. Some schools even have artificially easy classes designed specifically for athletes. But still, many of them have a difficult time keeping up. If athletes were held to the same academic standards as other students from the beginning, colleges would have no need to lower standards for athletes. The only way to encourage the system to change is for colleges to hold athletes to the same admissions criteria as everyone else. Eventually, things will change. Athletes will stop taking education for granted. The current system, where we keep athletes undereducated so they can bring in revenue, is unfair to the athletes and the other students who take classes with them.
Stephen K. Jackson • Feb 3, 2023 at 10:23 am
There is much to what you say about many colleges distorting the whole concept of the student athlete. When college’s refuse to take necessary measures to correct the current rot in the system they do a disservice to the athletes and certainly it isn’t fair to regular students who can easily see that a great many of the athletes aren’t even trying academically. A big problem here is that most of your prime athletes in the revenue sports have been getting spoiled by administrators and teachers well before they ever enter college. The spoiling and coddling of athletes frequently begins before these kids get to high school. It is sad and warped and it is well known that it has been going on for a long time. A huge chunk of these spoiled athletes come from families that are struggling financially and have been for generations. Also a great many of those families aren’t sophisticated enough to see that the so-called bonuses and benefits their kids receive don’t come because the benefactors love them. Unfortunately BIG money is constantly rearing its ugly head as are so -called boosters who want to make sure the gym or the stadium are full.