Report: Black Football Players Improve Graduation Rates But Still Trail White Counterparts
by Lois Elfman
Academic progress continues for football student-athletes who play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), but the racial divide continues to widen, according to a new report released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES).
The study shows overall academic progress continues to climb, but the gap between White and African-American players when it comes to academic performance also continues to widen.
“So many of the African-American student-athletes come from public school systems that are bankrupt educationally,” said Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES and primary author of Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the 2008-09 Bowl-bound College Football Teams — Academic Performance Improves but Race Still Matters.
“They don’t have the technology that some of the suburban or rural schools have,” Lapchick added. “They don’t have the best teachers.”
Lapchick also noted there may also be cultural expectations, which hopefully will shift significantly when President-Elect Barack Obama takes office. “He emphasized academics and was successful,” he says.
There is a 76 percent graduation rate for White football student-athletes at the 120 FBS schools versus 59 percent for African-American football student-athletes. Although this is a significant increase from 50 percent in 2007, the gap between White and Black players rose from 14 percent to 17 percent, the report shows.
Another positive for football players is the fact that African-American football student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the overall African-American male student population, which is only 38 percent. Although Lapchick drew no conclusions on that differential, indisputable advantages for student-athletes are they have no tuition woes and they are often provided with excellent tutors and other resources not readily available to the average student.
