LA Times Article: Stanford football players use their brains

College Search & Selection
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<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-streeter9oct09,1,5856884.column?coll=la-headlines-sports%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-streeter9oct09,1,5856884.column?coll=la-headlines-sports&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
...During the game, I counted 66 kids in Cardinal red and white. In their media guide, more than half -- 36 -- were listed in the National Honor Society. More than a dozen were Merit Scholars in high school. Ten are now academic All-Pacific 10 Conference. Eight are studying for advanced degrees....</p>

<p>Recently a busload of USC athletes were found trying to pump up their grades by taking a class at Los Angeles Trade Tech College that was later discredited. That's not happening in Palo Alto. Cardinal players don't take Underwater Fire Prevention. This year, Stanford has 15 players majoring in engineering. They cannot take an easy coarse load. There isn't any.....</p>

<p>"The reality of college football is that it is big business," says Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. He has made a career out of studying this stuff. Too often, he says, kids are brought in "more for their ability to score touchdowns than to get engineering degrees. Do these schools need to do a better job? Absolutely."

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<p>As the article makes clear, Stanford has done an excellent job at recruiting and graduating its student-athletes. This is true not only for their football team but across their athletic program which has won the NCAA Directors Cup for 13 straight years. This "doing it right" approach is also practiced by several other USNWR Top 20 Universities that are major Division I scholarship awarding colleges. </p>

<p>All Students , Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rate , College</p>

<p>94% , 93% , Stanford
93% , 97% , Duke
93% , 96% , Northwestern
90% , 91% , Rice
88% , 93% , Vanderbilt
95% , 98% , Notre Dame
83% , 66% , USC
88% , 93% , Wake Forest</p>

<p>87% , 73% , UC Berkeley
93% , 84% , U Virginia
87% , 71% , UCLA
87% , 87% , U Michigan
84% , 81% , U North Carolina</p>

<pre><code>, na , Ivies
</code></pre>

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<p>Does Stanford really need the ego boost?</p>

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<p>At D1s high school there was one guy, an academic slacker who was evidently a good football player. To everyone's surprise, he wound up doing great on his SATs, and went to one of these colleges on a sports scholarship (though his family was well off).</p>

<p>Absent football, he would never have been admitted to a very top school based on his academic performance and evaluation of his other credentials. Everyone there knew it.</p>

<p>His college can point to his test scores, put him in a list of NM semi-finalists, but those who know recognize that his package was far below the norm for others admitted to that college from that high school.</p>

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<p>UCBChemEGrad,
Weren't you the one scolding me just a few days about giving props where they are due?? :) </p>

<p>Anyway, I would think that Stanford's win would be enjoyed as well by the Cal Bears as it makes the path to the Pac 10 title and National Championship a little easier. How cool would it be to see Cal vs LSU in New Orleans for the national title!</p>

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<p>^ Haha, true. </p>

<p>I was cheering on the Farm in their victory over USC. Cal can't look ahead...not with the way this season is going.</p>

<p>It would be huge for Cal to go to the NCG. But, I think it would essentially be a home game for LSU (if LSU goes).</p>

<p>Personally, I'd like for Cal to be in the Rose Bowl and win versus going to the NCG and lose.</p>

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<p>I could not disagree more. Winning the Pac 10 (and hopefully going undefeated) would be huge for UCB and going to the national title game would do a ton to help its national athletic reputation. Outside of the West, the school and especially its athletic program, is not nearly as well known or appreciated as you might think. Frankly, the BCS has made all of these non-championship games irrelevant. And given what the Bears did to Tennessee earlier this year, the Cal-LSU game would probably be a heckuva game. So, don't wimp out on the Bears and settle for the Rose Bowl. They can, and hopefully will, do better than that. </p>

<p>And, of course for fans like me, the party and the "scene" in New Orleans, no matter who wins, will probably be one for the ages.</p>

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<p>Eh, the Rose Bowl has more prestige and pageantry than a 2 year old National Championship game held in a dome, last remembered for abandoned Katrina victims. :p</p>

<p>But yes, the party in New Orleans would be fun. I love that city and the restaurants.</p>

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<p>In terms of graduation rates for athletes - one really needs to separate out FB and men's BB from the other sports.</p>

<p>For teams that went to bowls last season.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Among the schools with graduation rates for football players below 50 percent are: University of California, University of Minnesota, University of Florida, University of Alabama, West Virginia University, University of Louisville, North Carolina State, Auburn, University of Colorado, Rutgers, University of Utah and Georgia Tech.</p>

<p>Among those schools not meeting the current APR standard are Ohio State, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, Arizona State, University of Missouri, University of Toledo, University of Oregon, University of Kansas and University of Houston. </p>

<p>And among those with a huge discrepancy between graduation rates for their white and black players are West Virginia (56-33), Florida State (71-43), Auburn (74-40), LSU (61-35), University of Iowa (64-38), Iowa State (63-36), Louisville (53-27), Minnesota (60-27), Clemson (77-35), Colorado (60-29), Akron (66-28) and Memphis (59-29)

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<p>The two FB powers that have historically done a good job graduating both their white and black FB players are Penn St. and Neb.</p>

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<p>^ Not true...Cal is above 50% for football (just barely).</p>

<p>If you want to pick on Cal, look at Texas...
<a href="http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1144&CID=722328%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1144&CID=722328&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>
[quote]
Not true...Cal is above 50% for football (just barely).

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<p>Uhh, the diff. may just be grad rates for diff. years (the 2006 grad rate vs. 2007).</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you want to pick on Cal, look at Texas...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm not picking on Cal - Cal and UCLA just happen to be on hawk's list.</p>

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<p>^ Ah, my bad...sorry. ;) </p>

<p>Those rates are pretty abysmal.</p>

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<p>One thing to note regarding grad rates for athletes - the very top athletes have a significant financial incentive to leave school before four years are up, independent of anything the colleges do for them. For example, baseball players' top negotiating leverage comes after their Junior year; if they wait to graduate they'll get a lot less money when/if they are drafted by a professional team, all else being equal. So to a certain extent, having major sport athletic programs at the very top level - with players who are destined for professional sports - creates a situation which works against athletic graduation rates entirely independent of the academic preparation and support the student/athletes receive.</p>

<p>Of course, this only applies to sports with highly compensated professional teams for the athletes to be hired by, which is pretty much just baseball, football, basketball and hockey.</p>

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<p>^ Very true. I forgot to mention that. Thanks.</p>

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<p>^ But there are a no. of schools which send a good no. of players to the pro leagues (PSU and Neb. for FB; UNC for BB) which still tend to have pretty high graduation rates.</p>

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<p>Yes, but I think those guys have good values and realize that a college education is important. Take Joe Paterno at PSU, he is known for instilling educational values into his team... i think a lot depends on the coach as well as the player.</p>

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<p>The way the Graduation Rate Success numbers work is that they allow for students to transfer out or go to the pros and they are not counted against the score if, at the time of their leaving, they are in good academic standing relative to making progress toward a degree. The GSR also takes into account transfer student-athletes. These two differences are what distinguishes it when making direct comparisons with the overall student body.</p>