<p>The good news is that football players, black and white, graduate at higher rates than regular students (though that is not on a 1:1 comparison with these schools but is general and thus not worth that much). The bad news is kind of obvious from the charts.</p>
<p>Thank you for the link to a very substantive review of an issue that worries me, too.
I used to tutor athletes when I was a college student as a work-study job. Their practice and travel schedules (at a Div 1 school) make it challenging to manage a normal student course load. Many athletes had the same challenge in high school, so they arrive at college a little bit behind other students.</p>
<p>I’d like to see another column: % of athletes who didn’t graduate because they went pro early. </p>
<p>I know UTexas best, so I’ll use examples from that school. Any number of Longhorns don’t complete their educations because they move on to bigger and better things. Their goal always was to use college as a stepping stone to a professional sports career. I bet Kevin Durant, Vince Young, Cedric Benson, etc. don’t feel like the university failed them.</p>
<p>True…some leave early before graduating to go pro. That’s their choice. The school cannot force a pro-bound athlete to stay - even if he’s close to graduating. The situation is only sad when the athlete has gone thru all his eligibility and still can’t graduate.</p>
<p>An issue facing many AA football players is that many come from poor families who can’t give them any spending money while they’re in school. These kids have to live rather impoverished college lives - not much fun there. So, if they get an opportunity to go pro early, they often will jump at the chance because it immediately takes them out of poverty and avoids the risk of losing the chance if an injury is sustained the following year playing college ball.</p>
<p>mom…don’t kid yourself. Star athletes get plenty of spending money. DS played FB at the D2 level and speaks of players getting $9K refund checks on their scholarships. Money is not the issue.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve got 30k in debt and digging deeper. I have a $20 in my wallet that has to get me home tomorrow because I’m flat broke. I’m not a college athlete, I’m not AA, where’s my help? </p>
<p>And many of the athletes I’ve talked to have talked about the refunds that they get too…</p>
<p>*Yeah, I’ve got 30k in debt and digging deeper. I have a $20 in my wallet that has to get me home tomorrow because I’m flat broke. I’m not a college athlete, I’m not AA, where’s my help?
*</p>
<p>What year are you in college? Hopefully, you’re not a freshman or sophomore. Why are you borrowing so much money for undergrad? Weren’t there any less expensive alternatives or are you paying for a dream school?</p>
<p>I assume the “refund” would be the room, board and books money should the student choose to live off-campus. Anyway, isn’t a full-tuition, room, board and books scholarship more than enough? There’s always Stafford loans if they need spending money on top of that. Students not on athletic scholarships might have to rely on loans for much more than just spending money.</p>
<p>Exactly. Many athletes, particularly D1 BCS football players in my experience, live off-campus. If you’re a 100% scholarship football player, you are given a “refund check” for your portion of living expenses and board if you choose to do so (if you lived on campus, it would automatically ‘count’ towards your tuition bill). So, if the school calculates that room + board (on campus) costs or is the equivalent of $15,000, then the student is cut a $15,000 check with the intention of it being used for rent, utilities, and food. One of the dirty little tricks about this practice though is that living off-campus in many parts of the country can be cheaper than living on-campus. So if rent, utilities, and food only actually cost the football player $12,000, they pocket the difference in the stipend ($3000).</p>
<p>This is also the case with some scholarship programs I know of, particularly those at public universities (IMO). A little less than a decade ago (early 2000s. . . .things could have changed drastically, but as far as I know they haven’t) a friend’s brother was a Super Wonderful We Love You Presidential Scholar (not the real name, but you get the gist) at a large public university, a merit scholarship that came with tuition, fees, room, board, and a technology stipend. He decided to live off campus and thus got a check for the average room + board fee at the univ. - let’s say it was $10,500/year ($7500 for room and $3000 for board). Well rents were dirt cheap in this university town - you could get a one-bedroom apartment for $500/month and this guy could eat pretty much whatever he wanted for less than $1500 a semester. He ended up making money every year he was a student - in fact, I remember when he graduated he teased his sister (who had gone to an Ivy League school but had definitely paid for her degree!) that not only had he gotten four free years of college, but he had made something like $10,000 off the school too. </p>
<p>So these are the “refund checks” people are talking about. </p>
<p>Not to be confused with loan disbursement checks, by the way.</p>
<p>*I assume the “refund” would be the room, board and books money should the student choose to live off-campus. *</p>
<p>I thought football players of Div I schools often live on campus in the same dorm. I realize that some schools may not do this, but don’t the top Div I schools have the football players in the same dorm?</p>
<p>There must be something to this because Joe Paterno wanted the NCAA to relax its rules and allow a small stipend.</p>
<p>*then the student is cut a $15,000 check *</p>
<p>Uhhh… many division I schools only charge about $8-9k for room and board for basic double occupancy housing and meals. So, getting a check fo $4k a semester, is going to be needed for rent and food. I still think that at many ranking Div I football schools, the football players are housed in athletic dorms unless they’re married. I don’t think the school would want to risk cutting these guys checks only to have them blow the money and not be able to pay their rent.</p>
<p>At my school, on-campus housing requirements differ by sport. I know that freshman/sophomore women’s basketball players live in the same dorm. Men’s basketball players typically live in the same on-campus apartment complex but I think it’s only required for freshmen. Freshmen football players all live in the same on-campus apartment complex (same one as MBB), and quite a few sophs live there as well. The football players in academic trouble (I think below a 2.3 or 2.5 gpa for a year) are required to move back into on-campus housing for the following year. </p>
<p>I work with the football team so I hear them talk about their scholarships, cars, money, spending every once in a while. The scholarship guys who live off-campus get a check deposited to their bank account on like the 25th or so of each month to be used to pay rent, food, etc. for the next month. Anything left over is theirs to keep. Most off-campus housing here is significantly lower than on-campus costs.</p>
<p>The number was just chosen arbitrarily for the purposes of the hypothetical situation. However, wouldn’t you agree many institutions have room & board between $9k-$12k/year?</p>
<p>However this very much indeed happens. I respect your opinion, but having known about 20 football players in NCAA Div I. at BCS schools, in different conferences around the US, I will respectfully disagree with you. Like Cards4Life mentions, many schools have requirements for 1st year, 2nd, or even 3rd year students. I cannot think of a single D1 football player who is a senior or 5th year who I know (directly or indirectly) who lives on a college campus, married or not. </p>
<p>In fact, about four years ago ESPN reported that the NCAA was investigating how football players from several top-25 teams were living off campus in federally subsidized housing (the point that they were living off campus wasn’t the problem, it was that they were getting Section 8 funds on top of their housing/food checks from their universities).</p>
<p>Don’t take this personally, but I think you’re assuming too much care on the part of universities and too little self-responsibility are the part of the players.</p>
<p>By the way - it isn’t just football players who do this with their refund checks. I’ve known female basketball players and baseball players who have made money off their scholarships in this way too.</p>
<p>To give further context, the point is that:</p>
<ol>
<li>These are people on full rides, meaning they don’t have the normal financial pressures that prevent many kids, particularly black kids, from graduating. Certainly within the time considered for this report.</li>
<li>Even the very, very, very best teams of a decade only place generally about 10-15% of their players for any time in the NFL - one got up to 1/3 (Miami, FL). That means 1 year or more, which means some don’t really make any money in the NFL and a few do. For most division 1 schools and for most of these bowl teams, the percentage is more like 10%, which means 9 out of 10 at least don’t get a sniff. The truth is they are misled and studies of college football players show that substantial numbers believe they’ll play in the NFL, which is just plain delusional.</li>
<li>The players on scholarship for many div 1 teams and for most of the bowl teams - plus many that didn’t make it but are in major conferences - get huge amounts of extra help. They have study lounges only for athletes. They have their own dorms in some cases. They have their own food in some cases. They have assigned tutors (which has led to a number of cases of faked work). They have special academic advising (which has led to a number of cases where football players are put in classes that require no work, which means they’re useless for life). </li>
</ol>
<p>In other words, the sad truth is that even with all these considerations many of these schools can’t graduate half their black football players. And that’s not looking at the majors these kids might have, stuff that isn’t particularly academic and which isn’t much for a career if they don’t play in the NFL (which they won’t).</p>
<p>I was pleased so far to read only one yahoo quote, that one by some Texas fan who somehow believes all those students leave early for the pros. It’s interesting to note this fan lists 3 players, one a basketball player who went to Texas only because the NBA passed a rule requiring athletes to attend college for one year, and two football players, one of whom went to Texas for 4 full years. (I have no idea if he graduated or not.) So no, it’s not kids leaving school to go pro. They just don’t graduate.</p>