Football and men's basketball players are averaging hundreds of points less on their college entrance exams than their classmates, according to a newspaper's study of 54 public universities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution review found the biggest gap between football players and students occurred at the University of Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the school's overall student body.
Football players averaged 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates — and men's basketball players average seven points less than football players.
The paper reviewed 54 public universities, including the members of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences — the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and ACC — and other schools whose teams finished the 2007-08 season ranked among the football or men's basketball top 25.
Best average SAT score at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech's football players had the nation's best average SAT score average, 1,028 of a possible 1,600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0 in the core curriculum. But Tech's football players still scored 315 SAT points lower on average than their classmates.
UCLA has won more NCAA championships in all sports than any other school and had the biggest gap between the average SAT scores of athletes in all sports and its overall student body, at 247 points.
Critics say athletes who arrive on campus unprepared to compete academically get shuffled off to easy majors and unchallenging courses and don't receive much of an education.
"The problem is there's a huge world of Mickey Mouse courses and special curriculums that athletes are steered into," Murray Sperber, a visiting professor in the University of California's graduate school of education, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The problem is there are many athletes graduating from schools who are semiliterate."
The Worst of the Worst
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, LSU and Texas A&M University were special admits.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution review found the biggest gap between football players and students occurred at the University of Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the school's overall student body.
Football players averaged 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates — and men's basketball players average seven points less than football players.
The paper reviewed 54 public universities, including the members of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences — the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and ACC — and other schools whose teams finished the 2007-08 season ranked among the football or men's basketball top 25.
Best average SAT score at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech's football players had the nation's best average SAT score average, 1,028 of a possible 1,600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0 in the core curriculum. But Tech's football players still scored 315 SAT points lower on average than their classmates.
UCLA has won more NCAA championships in all sports than any other school and had the biggest gap between the average SAT scores of athletes in all sports and its overall student body, at 247 points.
Critics say athletes who arrive on campus unprepared to compete academically get shuffled off to easy majors and unchallenging courses and don't receive much of an education.
"The problem is there's a huge world of Mickey Mouse courses and special curriculums that athletes are steered into," Murray Sperber, a visiting professor in the University of California's graduate school of education, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The problem is there are many athletes graduating from schools who are semiliterate."
The Worst of the Worst
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, LSU and Texas A&M University were special admits.