In Pursuit of a Quality College Education: An Academic All-Star Basketball Team

Last week, Higher Ed Watch published its annual “Academic Sweet Sixteen” bracket, which ranks the teams in the NCAA tournament based on their basketball team graduation rates. While it’s important to consider how many players leave school with degrees in their hands, there’s a significant flaw in the comparison. We have no way to determine whether players who graduated actually learned anything or obtained the skills necessary to enter the workforce.

As we discussed during the football season, there is no data on college quality for athletes and very little for college students in general. It’s widely known that athletes often cluster in “jock majors,” which provide them with classes that demand and teach very little. The goal of many big-time basketball teams is simply to keep their players academically eligible, not to give them an education that will be of value in the future.

But because there is no objective way to track the relative worth of athletes’ degrees (and remember, this problems extends to all consumers of higher education), we have to rely on anecdotal evidence.

On the positive side, there are examples of basketball players and teams that excel both on the court and in the classroom. Higher Ed Watch wants to applaud some of these current players, and use them as an example for the teams that place little value on academics. As shocking as this may sound, these athletes show that it is possible to be a highly successful Division I basketball player and graduate with a meaningful degree.

The following players are seniors who will graduate in May, and they have all started games for teams that made the NCAA tournament this year:

• Adam Emmeneker, Drake
  Four majors: management, business, finance and entrepreneurial management
  3.97 GPA
• Cliff Hammonds, Clemson
  Double major: architecture and psychology
  3.2 GPA
  First scholarship basketball player on record at Clemson to earn a degree in architecture
• A. J. Graves, Butler
  Major: Mathematics and Actuarial Science
  3.35 GPA
  (Butler also won Higher Ed Watch’s Academic Sweet Sixteen last year with a 83 percent graduation rate)
• Justin Hare, Belmont
  Major: Exercise Science, Pre-Med
  3.86 GPA
  Plans to attend medical school
• Sasha Kaun, Kansas
  Major: Computer Science
  At least 3.2 GPA
  “Computer whiz”; participated in an engineering robotic competition
• Jonathan Wallace, Georgetown
  Major: Government
  Admitted to Georgetown University Law Center
• Ty Rogers, Western Kentucky
  Major: Business management, minor in entrepreneurship
  3.8 GPA

That’s a pretty impressive list. In contrast, consider the University of Memphis men’s basketball team this year (most recent graduation rate: 30 percent): Of the six juniors and seniors who have declared majors, three are majoring in “Interdisciplinary Studies,” two in “Sport and Leisure Management,” and one in “Communication.” These don’t sound like the most rigorous academic tracks to us.

The broader point, however, is that we don’t really know anything about the education that these athletes received. Maybe the Sport and Leisure Management department at Memphis has very high standards and produces students well-prepared to enter a management career upon graduation.

However, stories like this recent investigative series in The Ann Arbor News raise major questions about the academic integrity of big-time sports programs. The Ann Arbor News found that a very high percentage of University of Michigan athletes, particularly football players, major in “general studies” and enroll in numerous independent study classes. This clustering of athletes in a cushy academic track raises red flags about the quality of Michigan athletes’ degrees.

But it’s only when the media takes the time to do these investigations or when frustrated faculty members speak up that academic quality problems are exposed. The NCAA needs to start keeping comprehensive data on academic quality for its athletes—for example, an accounting of the courses taken by athletes with statistics such as GPAs or course requirements. And higher education institutions in general need to establish better quality measures for all students.

All college degrees are not equal—and unless colleges and the NCAA take steps to prove that the degrees received by their students have real value, they are both at risk: colleges of losing consumers, and the NCAA of losing its tax-exempt status.