93-12-17 Higher Eligibility Standards Would Hurt Black Student-Athletes, Researcher Says

HIGHER ELIGIBILITY STANDARDS WOULD HURT
BLACK STUDENT-ATHLETES, RESEARCHER SAYS

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 17 -- The current reform movement within
intercollegiate
athletics is misguided, says a University of Virginia psychologist who
researches the life experiences
and academic performance of student-athletes.
     In toughening eligibility standards for college hopefuls, the National
Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) is disproportionately hurting black students, contends
Robert M. Sellers,
author of several recent journal articles on black student-athletes.
     Sellers says an NCAA proposal requiring higher SAT scores and
grade-point averages
(GPAs) of college-bound students is erroneously based on the assumption that
athletes are not
motivated to earn good grades or to graduate from college.
     "The logic behind the reform effort is dangerously flawed," he said,
taking issue with the
notion that those in revenue-generating college sports value athletics more
than academics.
     "NCAA's reform efforts would be more effective if they focused on
enhancing athletes'
collegiate educational experiences," Sellers said.
     He believes it is poor academic preparation, rather than a lack of
motivation, that
contributes to athletes' low graduation rates.  He points to a 1987 study of
Division I athletes in
which more than 90 percent reported that earning a college degree was their
highest priority. 
(Roughly 50 percent of Division I athletes are black.)
     Sellers, a football player at Howard University who later earned a
doctorate at the
University of Michigan, feels strongly that the NCAA should redirect its
reform efforts from stiffer
requirements before college to strengthening educational opportunities for
student-athletes after
they matriculate.
     "The NCAA should adopt policies requiring academic support systems for
all student-
athletes, and should regulate such programs," Sellers said.  He noted that
although such programs
are fairly widespread, they vary significantly in quality.  Many are taught
by unqualified people, are
offered at inappropriate times, or too often are "merely study halls to help
athletes pass certain
courses," he said.
     Sellers believes colleges and universities should provide
academic-support programs that
focus on long-term skills, such as writing, time management and reading
improvement.
     He also thinks the NCAA should again prohibit freshmen from playing. 
(Freshmen
ineligibility was abolished in 1973.)  Such an arrangement, he pointed out,
would give them a full
year to become acquainted with their new academic environment before tackling
the rigors of
athletic competition.
     "At some schools athletes play in three games before they even attend
their first class," noted
Sellers, an assistant professor of psychology at U.Va.
     He thinks declaring freshmen ineligible to play would directly benefit
the athletes who come
from poor academic backgrounds.  To facilitate the year off, athletic
departments could grant five-
year scholarships to allow students to compete during their last four years,
Sellers proposed.
     He is convinced that NCAA's stiffer eligibility requirements will deny
many black student-
athletes access to higher education.  He says black students will not be able
to meet the standards
because many of them come from poor, ineffective public school systems with
high dropout rates.
     "An economic caste system has developed in which children of poor
backgrounds are
receiving inferior educational opportunities in elementary and secondary
schools.  NCAA's move
to tighten eligibility requirements, coupled with the structural inequities
of school systems, will deny
many of those students an avenue of escape," Seller said.  He noted that
college athletics has
historically been one of the few avenues for black students from poor
backgrounds to gain a college
education.
     Pointing to studies that show a correlation between students'
socio-economic backgrounds
and their SAT performances, Sellers said, "Black students will be denied
access to higher education
because of structural barriers beyond their control.
     "Raising SAT scores for determining eligibility erodes academic
integrity, rather than
enhancing it, in college athletics," he said.
     Supporters of the NCAA reforms say the organization is sending a clear
message to
secondary schools to educate high school athletes better, but Sellers is
troubled by that notion.  "The
NCAA has no influence over the quality of elementary and secondary school
systems.  The
organization would be better served to focus its energies where it has some
jurisdiction:  on the
quality of educational experiences higher education institutions provide
athletes."
                               ###
                                                December 16, 1993
     FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Sellers at (804) 973-3950.
     
 
Karen Castle, Office Services Specialist, University News Office
P.O. Box 9018, Booker House, Charlottesville, VA  22906
(804) 924-7116, kac@virginia.edu

[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Fri, 17 Dec 93 09:20:55 EST]