Fewer Blacks Playing College Football and Basketball Get Degrees

RSS Feed

Fewer Blacks Playing College Football and Basketball Get Degrees

March 22nd, 2016

Awake Goy

Rates of graduation for black males who play college football and basketball are lower than for other black male college students.

Shaun Harper, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study that found black men playing colleges’ most popular (and profitable) sports graduate at lower rates than other black males at the same schools.

According to Harper’s research, 58% of black male undergraduates earned their degrees within six years compared to 54% of black male student athletes at the same schools. The study compared federal graduation rates for the 2014-1015 academic year for the 65 teams in the NCAA’s five wealthiest conferences. In those schools, black men make up 2.5% of undergraduate students, but make up 56% of college football teams and 61% of men’s college basketball teams. These men graduate at lower rates than student athletes overall (69%) and undergraduates overall (75%) at these schools. Black athletes and black male students overall do better at other schools.

The NCAA’s website contains data on how few student-athletes are drafted to play professional sports. It estimates only 1.2% of college men’s basketball players are drafted by the NBA and only 1.6% of college football players are drafted by the NFL.

“When coaches are looking for the best athletic talent, that’s what they’re looking for,” Harper said. “They’re not really concerned with academic talent.” Harry Swayne, who played football at Rutgers University for four years before playing in the NFL for 14 years, said schools should look at student-athletes more as people than players and help them prepare for life beyond the game.