As we approach the heart of BCS bowl season, it becomes abundantly clear that college football is a huge business.
For the 5 major BCS bowl games, represented conferences receive 17.5 million dollars. This is not to mention advertising dollars, TV network deals and sponsorship deals. College football is big business, and the greatest challenge faced by the NCAA is to maintain an extremely marketable product while still making sure that collegiate athletes receive an adequate education.
Depending on who you talk to, the NCAA is doing a fine job or horribly exploiting their athletes and their amateur status.
So, do we have BCS bowl games filled with scholar athletes who value their “amateur” status and excel both in the classroom and on the field? You tell me:
The average graduation rate of the 10 teams competing in the 5 major bowl games: 61%
This data comes from a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. The entirety of their report can be seen here.
Look, I am not shocked that only 61% of the top BCS teams graduate college. Based on the sponsorship and growing professionalization of college football, I actually think it’s to be expected. But, what really does shock me is the disparity between the graduation rates of White and African American college football players:
Of the 67 BCS teams, the graduation rate for African‐ American male students as a whole is only 38 percent, in comparison to the 62 percent graduation rate for white male students. This is a significant 24% gap.
- 21 schools (up from 19 in 2008‐09) or 31 percent graduated less than 50 percent of their African‐American football student‐athletes, while only two schools graduated less than 50 percent of their white football student‐athletes.
- Seven schools (up from five schools in 2008‐09) or 10 percent graduated less than 40 percent of their African‐American football student‐athletes, while no school graduated less than 40 percent of their white football student‐athletes.
- 14 schools (up from 12 schools in 2008‐09) or 21 percent had graduation success rates for African‐American football student‐athletes that were at least 30 percent lower than their rates for white football student‐athletes.
- 35 schools (up from 29 schools in 2008‐09) or 52 percent had graduation success rates for African‐American football student‐athletes that were at least 20 percent lower than their rates for white football student‐athletes.
Here are the 2009 BCS Bowl teams graduation rates:
So, the two teams with the highest rates:
1) Navy (93)
2) Northwestern (92)
Lowest:
1) Arizona (41)
2) Oklahoma (45)
Do these graduation numbers bother you at all? Are college football player graduation rates something we should even be paying attention to? Is this yet another PR problem for the BCS?
