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 has widened from 14 percent to 17 percent, the report shows.
