# College athletics should be banned **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 10, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459 "2011-11-10T02:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/181 "2011-11-15T15:28:30Z")
Just in case anyone wants to claim the NCAA rates (GSR) are skewed, the federal graduation rate (FGR) for student athletes of 65% is still ahead of the general student population. > [@](#): > > The federal rate for student-athletes has climbed five points in the past 10 years and 13 points since 1984, when it was first calculated. Although not as precise as the NCAA’s rate, it is the only measure to compare student-athlete graduation with the general student body. Lots of good data available on graduation rates on the [NCAA site](http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Resources/Latest+News/2011/October/NCAA+grad+rates+top+80+percent). **PRR** you should really find a minute or three to peruse it. > [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Actually, it’s pretty equivocal, since I didn’t define “college athletics” and you have chosen to define it for me. No **PRR** , you are simply trying to get out of what you said. You used a phrase commonly accepted to apply to the body as whole and are trying to suggest that we should have known that you really meant it to apply to a small subset? I could perhaps buy into your reasoning if the context of the OP supported your argument that the title was directed at just a small subset of college athletics. I invite you and anyone else to read the OP again. Your last sentence makes it clear that you meant all of them, not just some of them. > [@](#): > > Just pull the plug on all of them now, and get back to the education business. I’ll agree something needs to be done with the big D-1 programs. My own [alma mater](http://www.mndaily.com/2011/10/27/student-athlete-graduation-success-rates-all-time-high) while posting an overall GSR of 80% had pretty lousy numbers in thier 4 big D-1 programs. > [@](#): > > Men’s basketball, football, wrestling and hockey have the lowest Graduation Success Rates, posting 43, 59, 67 and 68 percents, respectively. I’d also beg you to do more research into women’s athletics in college before you pull the plug on all of them. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the success of women student athletes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/182 "2011-11-15T16:21:33Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I don’t understand your question about my being “literature professor” (and I’m not talking about the missing article), nor about my being in a position to criticize. Is being a professor of lit. supposed to be DISqualifier in your book, or something? No, it was just a bit of conversational ribbing. I was getting back at you for insinuating that all student athletes were nearly illiterate bricks. As I mentioned upthread, 80ish percent of my college soccer team graduated with an engineering degree (including myself), so your claims of universality of your experience just rubbed me the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/183 "2011-11-15T16:23:19Z")
At the risk of sounding stupid (I truly know nothing about sports, though my husband is slowly trying to teach me about football)… can someone explain what “D-1” means? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/184 "2011-11-15T16:59:28Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > At the risk of sounding stupid (I truly know nothing about sports, though my husband is slowly trying to teach me about football)… can someone explain what “D-1” means? D-1 is short for Division 1 - [NCAA Division I - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_I_(NCAA)) It is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the NCAA. It covers most men’s and women’s sports. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/185 "2011-11-15T17:50:58Z")
Thanks for the link 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459/186 "2011-11-15T18:09:26Z")
Let’s parse down the magnitude of the OP’s problem. Approximate number of college students enrolled in degree granting institutions in the US: 20 million. Let’s limit the corruptible students to football and basketball programs in D1-A schools. Approximate # of D1-A schools - 140 Assuming that there are 110 scholarship football players and 13 basketball players on scholarship at each school, total would be 1,722. That’s .009% of the total students enrolled in college. How can such a small number be such a distraction on our college educational process? Exaggerate much? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-athletics-should-be-banned/602459.md?page=9)