Student Athletes: Article Analysis

Higher education has changed their values and standards towards student athletes.Taylor Branch points out that “Big time college sports... selects athletes mainly for their athletics, not academics, interests, and abilities.” This shows that colleges view athletes more as “athletes-students” than “student-athletes” (Eckard 211). This point of view is just one reason why the graduation rate for college athletes is so low. However, universities make athletes’ graduation rates seem more favorable so that they can continue to recruit and get more skilled amateur players to generate millions of dollars for their institutions. Although some may say colleges do an effective job of taking care of, and graduating, their student-athletes, the reality
The articles, “Taking the Measure of Graduation Rates in Big-Time College Sports”, by Richard M. Southall and “NCAA Athlete Graduation Rates Less Than Meets the Eye” by E. Woodrow Eckard describes the three different sampling method that most universities use: the Graduation Success Rate, Federal Graduation Rate, and Adjusted Graduation Gap. Although Eckard’s articles is more credible due to his data and sources, both articles effectively describe how universities use different sampling methods to make it appear as if their athletes’ graduation rates have improved. For example, in Eckard’ article, he explains that colleges uses part-time students’ graduation rates for comparison with the full-time student-athletes’ graduation rates. This is bias and problematic because “athletes are full-time” (Eckard 219) and they should be compared with other full-time students, and comparing the athletes to part-time students “distort the comparison, making the relative graduation rate appear more favorable” (Eckard 219). As shown, colleges goes through great lengths to make their student-athletes’ graduation rates seem more flattering, instead of contributing more time to increasing the student-athletes graduation rate. Therefore, the universities are contributing to the student-athletes’ low graduation
Unfortunately, as much revenue student-athletes generate for the school they are still treated unfairly. In the eyes of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) the term “student-athlete” was ambiguous. “The Shame of College Sports” by the author Taylor Branch describes how the NCAA uses the term “student-athlete” in order to not compensate the student-athletes nor penalize student-athletes because they do not meet the academic standards of their peers. Taylor Branch’s article gives multiple examples of how the NCAA ambiguous meaning of the term “student-athlete” has treated many student-athletes unfairly. For example, Ray Dennison, former football player for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies, died from a head injury while playing football in Colorado. His wife filed for workmen’s compensation death benefits. She was denied because the college stated they was “not in the football business”. Taylor Branch’s article demonstrates how universities and the NCAA are depriving their student-athletes compensation, when they are they ones that helps generate all the money in the first