An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals a large gap at many universities between the SAT scores of athletes and scores for the student body at large.
In many cases, the SAT scores of football and men's basketball players at schools - mostly public - that compete on the highest and most visible level are hundreds of points lower than average scores of the total student body at those same schools.
The largest gap, according to the report, is at the University of Florida, where the average SAT score for football players is 346 points lower than the average score for that institution's student body.
Florida's football team will play for the national championship in early January.
The investigation focuses on public universities since their data on SAT scores is public information. It also includes information from Syracuse because that institution makes the data public. According to the newspaper, some schools - Penn State, Pittsburgh - declined to release the information. Kansas State simply deleted the details.
Wondering how your school comes out? The Atlanta paper has an easy-to-search database here.
This reporting follows a November expose by USA Today that tracked college athletes and the majors they chose. I blogged about that issue here.
Comments
student athlete a sham
Tue, 12/30/2008 - 09:16 — sctoadThe question is that if most of these kids are not interested in education, only sports, why do we funnel them to our colleges at all? Basketball and football need developmental systems like baseball so that kids who don't want to take academics seriously don't have to be burdened with studying. This would also free up the resources of our colleges and university's for kids who want to be there.
The schools that have the largest discrepancies in athlete vs. non-athlete academics are the larger schools. Smaller more academically oriented schools do not have as big of differences and perhaps should be more of the model for educational institutions as opposed to the BCS schools.
SAT scores
Tue, 12/30/2008 - 07:10 — woggie1Does it really surprise you about these scores? The "dumbing down" of high school teams has been a slow process. When you see these young people that can't speak proper English(you know used in every sentence)and many can't make change without seeing it displayed on the cash register screen, the school system has failed them. The college system has failed them also when they allow these sometime superstars to take "basket weaving 101" instead of real classes. Sure,,you find many go on to make tons of money, but by the same token a lot of them wind up broke after an injury shortened their playing time(little or no real credits earned while in college). Tougher standards are needed,not lower SAT scores.If they can't cut it,let them flip burgers at McDonalds! WOGGIE1