Poor sports

Christian Century, Oct 18, 2003 by Mark G. Toulouse

The study verifies that there is significant "underperformance" on the part of these recruited athletes--and the divide is widening. Their grades are below the expectations based upon their pre-college achievements (81 percent of recruited athletes a NESCAC schools and 64 percent a the Ivies were in the bottom third of their classes). Recruits also perform much more poorly in the classroom than do their walk on fellow athletes. These comparisons and others indicate that the time commitments associated with athletics are not the main cause of underperformance.

The only exceptions to these negative trends are found in the four UAA schools. These schools receive a fairly clean bill of health in this study (there is some modest stress in football). The authors attribute the difference to less formalized recruitment processes, the absence of strong sports rivalries, strong presidential control over athletics and careful monitoring of academic performance. UAA guidelines also mandate that "student athletes shall be measured against the same standards as other students in admissions, financial aid and academic programs," and the schools, for the most part, abide by this principle. While the Ivies work with a similar statement, its controlling influence has diminished.

The book offers recommendations for reform, largely patterned on the strengths of the UAA. In addition, it urges schools to reduce the number of their recruited athletes and to raise standards for those who are recruited. Bowen and Levin want schools to encourage walk-ons and reduce the time commitments required of athletes. Finally, they stress the need for a new national organizational structure for intercollegiate athletics, preferably in the form of a new division within the NCAA, which would establish clear principles in line with these reforms. Would it work? It might help. But the book leaves me thinking that principles alone can only go so far. Alter all, the strong principles of the Ivies have slipped during the past 15 years, resulting in a rather negative athletic culture.

The UAA's success with athletics highlights the importance of strong presidential leadership. In each UAA school, the president controls the athletic shop. The recent unilateral action taken by Vanderbilt University might represent the quickest route to reform. In September, Chancellor E. Gordon Gee, acting in response to the revelations at Baylor and other schools, completely dissolved the athletic department and placed athletics under the direct control of the Division of Student Life and University Affairs. Presidents of the Ivies and other non-UAA schools included in this study, all of whom commissioned and supported this work in the hope that changes can be made, would do well to pay as much attention to developments at Vanderbilt as to the recommendations in this book.

Reviewed by Mark G. Toulouse, professor of American religious history at Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas.