Friday, November 10, 2006
Is It Possible That Athletes Are a Lot Smarter Than We Thought?
Is it possible? Could it be true? Is there any chance in hell that the jocks are smarter than the non-athlete students? NCAA President Myles Brand says YES! In the NCAA's most recent study, "incoming athletes from the freshman class of 1999-2000 held a 2-point advantage, 63 percent to 61 percent, over those students who did not play sports."
So who is to blame for this supposed misconception that athletes don't perform well in the classroom? Myles Brand has an answer...the media. "Their claim that student-athletes don't perform well in the classroom is way off, and I think those wrong stories need to get their facts right."
I almost buy into this little study conducted by the NCAA...except that it doesn't take into account the fact that most NCAA athletes are in joke classes and some aren't even required to attend class but receive an A anyways. Why don't we have athletes and non-athletes take a general IQ test to see who really is more intelligent. That will easily settle this dispute, and put athletes in their place.
11 Comments:
Athletes are smart damnit! As long as Jim Harrick Jr. is their teacher.
Free tutoring.
Free class notes.
Access to old tests.
Course schedule that includes Principles of Basketball, Ballroom Dancing, or Intro to Theater.
You mean these things might give a student athlete an advantage over the general university population?
be careful not to generalize here...when we're talking college athletes, we're not just talking football and men's hoops.
remember the golf team, the cross-country runners...there are a lot of athletes who are not so different than you or me out there and do get good grades.
do I think a troy smith could do well in advanced chem? well, probably not.
Umm, has Myles Brand ever heard of a little thing called "tutors"?
most NCAA athletes are at division 2 and division 3 schools.
It might be true--everybody always gives statisitcs--that the graduation rate for athletes at certain schools is 80% or 60%--but those statistics are completely out of context because you don't know the overall graduation rate. It could very well be that only 80% or 60% of non-athletes who enroll at those colleges graduate. Who knows, maybe non-athletes at the University of Cincinnati also had a 0% graduation rate when Bob Huggins was there.
former college jock, came in through deadspin link. and I was a DII guy.
remember this-- i was a 6'4" small forward and had no illusions about the NBA; most non-D1, non-football/hoops/baseball players are just like I was, in school on scholarship due to sports, but taking advantage of that aspect of the system.
I got no free tutoring, no free class notes, and no access to old tests that didn't come to all students in the professor's class.
Yeah, I did take basketball theory, and I did get laid because I was on the team-- that was the primary place I leveraged my basketball notoriety.
The end result though, is I have an English degree, spent 4 years teaching gifted and talented classes, and had a principal who was a jock as well-- in the days before he was a double doctorate in both English and Business Administration and taught himself French, just because he could.
As Zach said, Do NOT generalize!
All student athletes? Yes, that makes sense. But we give most attention to the exploits of student athletes playing basketball and football. I'd like to see the total GPA for just the athletes playing those sports.
Also, from my experience, there are plenty of college students who barely want to be there and don't care if they flunk out. The athletes at least have a reason to be there.
What I mean is, I'd like to see the relationship between big-name school, big-money sport athletes. The overwhelming majority of college athletes know there's no pro future possible, and the colleges have no major incentive to keep the student-athletes there for the non-big-money sports.
The high school numbers are even more noticeable: students who participate in activities almost always have better grades and are more likely to graduate than students that don't.
Yeah I agree with the "don't overgeneralize" crowd... I'm sure a lot D1 Basketball and Football players are not there for school... but where I go, hockey in the only D1 sport, and the football, basketball, etc. players are often the hardest-working students.
I am so smart, s-m-r-t...I mean S-M-A-R-T! - Homer Simpson
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