Success in Sports Doesn't Help With Enrollment

Parents Forum
1

<p>Article from today's LA Times:</p>

<p>Excerpt:</p>

<p>"A 2000 survey by the Art & Science Group, a Baltimore consulting firm that specializes in higher education, suggested that only 10-15% of college-bound high school seniors were influenced by athletics.</p>

<p>Internships, student clubs and even intramural sports ranked higher among the priorities of the 500 students surveyed. Those who said they were swayed by a winning team also reported lower test scores and lower household incomes, the study found.</p>

<p>Any purported connection between admissions and success on the playing field "is little more than a myth — another fiction in a long string of rationalizations used to justify the emphasis on intercollegiate athletics that is increasingly out of control," the survey concluded.</p>

<p>The NCAA — which governs major college sports — has examined the issue in recent years. An April 2005 report found no evidence that schools trying to build winning teams by spending more on athletics were attracting applicant pools with higher SAT scores. Nor did any conclusive data link increased spending on football or basketball to increased alumni giving."</p>

<p>Full article:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-uscimpact30dec30,1,3420846.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-uscimpact30dec30,1,3420846.story?coll=la-headlines-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Winning teams will make sports more self-supporting at major schools. That's enough.</p>

3

<p>"An April 2005 report found no evidence that schools trying to build winning teams by spending more on athletics were attracting applicant pools with higher SAT scores."</p>

<p>... what about schools that already built winning teams? (like a Virginia Tech)</p>

4

<p>Ms. Harrington fails to note the REAL reason for the rise in test scores: 'SC gives big tuition discounts to NMF's.....and has done so for many years.</p>

5

<p>Some people think that Duke's rise to the #5 spot in the US News & World Report ranking is aided in part by its investments in athletics.</p>