Historical Perspective No pass, no play has been a part of Texas high school football since 1985. During that time, Ross Perot spearheaded a campaign to require higher standards for athletic participation. According to the state law, students must have a passing grade in each class during the grading period they are attempting to participate in the extracurricular activity in order to be eligible to participate. Although the state of Texas was the first to initiate the academic standards, most states quickly followed behind passing similar “no pass / no play” rules. The passing of this law has created controversy since its inception. Many educators, lawmakers, and members of the community support the law; however, some community …show more content…
Negative Impacts of “No Pass/No Play” The “No Pass/No Play” requirement drastically affects the ability for low-income students to participate in extracurricular activities. According to an article in the Washington post in 1995, The correlation between the income of students and their GPA, SAT, or ACT score is strong. Using the current requirement, the NCAA may be restricting participation in extracurricular activities to income not scores. Also, in 1995, the USDOE’s National Center for Education Statistics found that Proposition 48 would cut off more than 1/3 of low-income students and 1/10 of high-income students (Klesse, 2005). Cutoff scores are controversial because a point or half a point difference in a score can determine pass or fail; however, the standardized assessment being used as the measuring stick may require a larger difference before mastery or lack of mastery can be indicated. For example, one additional question correct or incorrect on the SAT can result in a 10-point difference in a student’s score. However, a 120-point difference is needed in the score of a SAT student before a difference in ability can be qualified (Klesse, 2005). Opponents of the “No Pass / No Play” requirements argue that minority athletes will end up
Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).
Multiple studies have shown that college athletes do not perform as well in the classroom as their nonathletic peers. For example, according to Michael Maloney in the article An Examination of the Role that Intercollegiate Athletic Participation Plays in Academic Achievement, he states that “SAT scores of athletes are, on average, 150 points below non- athletes. Similarly, athletes come to college with inferior high school preparation in academics. Their high school rank is 20 percentage points below nonathletes.”
In today’s society, there are many issues, dilemmas, and scandals that we have to face. After reading Kenneth Jost’s article about college football there is, respectively, many issues in this field. I firmly agree that the Committee of the Coalition of Intercollegiate Athletics, which is an organization that represent roughly half the FBS schools, should search for ways to force college athletes to be admitted into the school before being provided with scholarships to play. Even though everyone loves watching college athletics, the purpose of going to school isn’t to be entertained, it’s an opportunity to better your education. Although many colleges feel like this will decrease their schools win efficiency there are examples that diminish
For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances
It’s shaping up to be a trying year for the NCAA as two former athletes have come forward in the past week and filed a class action lawsuit against them for “academic fraud in its members schools’ athletic programs.” While some think this couldn’t get worse, from the numerous unacknowledged complaints from over the last century, a large number of the student athletes on the receiving end of less than stellar educations were African-American student athletes—especially in revenue-producing sports like basketball and football.
The NCAA has relied heavily on the age-old characterization of college athletes as “amateurs” who are first and foremost “student-athletes” (Sanderson and Siegfried). Because they are considered students and
While football players at the University of Illinois are working at their sport or performing their sport nearly 32 hours a week, which is all right after coming from a full class schedule. The NCAA wants to treat student athletes like regular students, when these athletes are the farthest thing from being regular students. These athletes are expected just like the rest of the student body to perform at their highest capability in the classroom, but as well at their peak athletic ability in practice or in a game right after they have spent the day draining themselves into their school
Understanding the stringent rules employed by the N.C.A.A., the administrators of the university saw it fit to develop fake classes that student-athletes would attend and receive A 's and B 's. No one should fault the school alone because the pressure that some of these student-athletes undergo is enormous, and they find it hard to keep up with schoolwork. All universities have minimum academic requirements that they should adhere to when selecting freshmen students. Gurney posits the N.C.A.A. has specified the minimum academic requirements for universities selecting first-year student-athletes. Some of these requirements are followed, but since the high school test scores are low, the students find it difficult to cope with college academics.
When high school students that play high-profile sports are applying for college, they have nearly a thirty percent advantage in getting admitted compared to non-athletes in the pool of applicants, despite having SAT scores that are around one hundred points lower than average. A study collected from football and basketball players at the University of North Carolina found that nearly sixty percent of these students could only read between a fourth- and eighth-grade level with ten percent only able to read as well as a third-grade student. This culture has been cultivating for several years. During the first intercollegiate game documented between Rutgers University and Princeton University in 1869, it is said that four of the players on the winning team (Rutgers) were failing classes. Nonetheless, this Rutgers and Princeton game is idolized. Athletes are conditioned to believe if personal physical performance is high enough, then expectations for academic performance will be lower. This ideology proves to carry on into many other aspects of the players’ life, including the judicial
In 2010, the United States Secretary of Education Mr. Arne Duncan demanded that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) clean-up their act due to the declining graduation rate for athletes, particularly African-American males. According to the Harper’s study, at 50 of the most prominent colleges, on the average, African-American males made-up approximately 2.8% of the undergraduate class overall (Harper 4). However, they made-up approximately 57.1% of the football players and approximately 64.3% of the basketball players (Harper 4) with an average completion rate of six-years (Harper 4). As a result, many college coaches and academic administrators started to encourage African-American male athlete-students to major in less demanding degree
This past June marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX, a United States law stating that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Although the wide spectrum in which Title IX covers includes many educational issues, its application to NCAA athletics has especially been confounded, because, unlike most educational institutions, athletic programs are gender-segregated by sport. In terms of intercollegiate athletics, Title IX essentially states that that all academic institutes of higher education are
Being able to see an African American athlete on T.V sounds unbelievable. A high percentage of the youth go through their entire childhood hoping and dreaming of becoming a legacy just like the people on T.V. Unfortunately, not everything they see on T.V is true and becoming like those people on T.V is nearly impossible. Therefore, the representation of African Americans in professional sports has had a positive impact in the trajectories of black adolescent’s academic readiness and pursuits. This is due to professional athletes serve as an example to young African American men. In addition, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires players to maintain a certain grade point average (GPA). Furthermore, African American athletes
African American males have excelled in many collegiate sports today. The main sports they are funneled in to excel are football, basketball, and track. In the past, African American men could participate in the sports but were not given respect. Now young African American men are being recruited for their hard work and God-given talents to play on a collegiate team. The demographics of African American athletes in sports especially division I has increased over time. In a 2012 report, African American males compromised 22 percent of all of division I athletics, in football 43.2 percent, and in basketball 57.2 percent (Lapchick, Hoff, and Kaiser 2013). Also, when they progress to the next level demographics show that approximately
College athletes play for an organization called the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA). The NCAA has so much control over these athletes, that they even control their educational requirements. The NCAA requires all college athletes to maintain a 2.5 average on a course load of at least 12 credits each semester. Some might say this is not a hard requirement to maintain, but one must remember while playing a college sport, time is limited and some athletes struggle to find time to get everything done. If a player is not able to maintain these requirements, he or she might lose their scholarship if they are on one. After all, college sports are big business, colleges are exploiting these young athletes making tons of money off of players, while these young men themselves don't even have pocket money to spend.
Imagine not having to take the ACT or SAT and still getting into college. Well, Harvard has put forward the ideas of changes to their admission programs. I agree with Harvard’s proposed changes to college admissions because they are putting more emphasis on involvement with the community or family than grades on a standardized test. As the article states, “giving students clear opportunities to report their contributions to their families on their college applications … can help underprivileged students” (Stump). With these new changes requested, students don’t have to focus on studying for hours for tests when they can be helping do better activities. Although the standardized testing has been in the college admission system for years now,