<p>"It is well known that many major universities use football as a marketing tool and as a stimulant to alumni giving. With a bit of a twist, small schools have started doing the same. As documented in a recent article in The New York Times, colleges that have traditionally had a difficult time attracting males are turning to football to bulk up their enrollments and to sculpt more diverse student bodies."</p>
<p>"In the realm of scholarship offering institutions, there are academic support systems in play for athletes, but in small colleges, the football player who does not cut it will often end up going into a funk, and not showing up to class. These forlorn athletes fall between the cracks of faculty attention and a portion of them will end up leaving college with a bad taste in their mouths about education. They would have been much better off mourning the passing of their high school glory days and waiting to enter college.</p>
<p>Football might be good for small colleges; after all, it has a track record for helping to correct both racial and gender imbalances. But it is not always kind to the young men who go to institutions of higher education at a time when they have no desire for an education. If this sport is going to be set as admissions bait, then admissions officers ought to refrain from pursuing athletes who are both weak students and devoid of a desire to study anything but the playbook."
<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/14/marino%5B/url%5D">http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/14/marino</a></p>
<p>Link to the NYT article "Small Colleges, Short of Men, Embrace Football"
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/qtk95%5B/url%5D">http://tinyurl.com/qtk95</a></p>