Conflict of Majors?
November 20th, 2008 - byNecessary Roughness starring Scott Bacula is one of my favorite sports movies of all time. In the film a group of walk-on students take the place of the previous year’s team that has been expelled for various NCAA violations. However, the new 
“real student” team falls quickly in line by all signing up for Journalism 101 aka Snooze the Newz.
Large groups of athletes “clustering” in a few majors and classes. It only happens in the movies right? The cover of yesterday’s USA Today would have you believe otherwise.
B. David Ridpath has a confession to make. As the athletics department’s compliance director and liaison to academic services for athletes at Marshall from 1997 to 2001, he often told athletes to avoid tough majors if they wanted to play their sports.
A USA TODAY study of the majors of juniors and seniors in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball at 142 of the NCAA’s top-level schools shows athletes at many institutions clustering in certain majors, in some cases at rates highly disproportionate to those of all students.
Academic advisers for athletes face complex, pressure-filled jobs that have become more so in recent years as the NCAA eased rules on freshman eligibility while ratcheting up requirements for minimum progress toward a degree.
The USA today article paints a very grim picture of conflicted advisors, but the NCAA Double-A-Zone points out an important viewpoint:
Some athletes, like former Kansas State football student-athlete, Steven Cline, opt to switch majors rather than placing their eligibility at risk in a more demanding field of study.
Cline went to Kansas State with the intention of becoming a veterinarian, but after performing poorly in freshman biology, he said he discussed his situation with his athletics academic advisor who told him social science would be “an easier path.” Cline then made the decision to forget his dream in favor of, “not-so-demanding courses that helped him have success in the classroom and on the field.”
It’s a decision Cline regrets. “It was a stupid effort on my part,” he told USA Today. “I wouldn’t advise any other athlete to do that. I’d tell them to choose a career–a real career for their life after football and work toward it.”
Here’s the thing that USA Today doesn’t make clear, Cline had a choice. No one made him select social science. If he thought it would be too difficult to major in pre-veterinary curriculum, he could have made several decisions, including dropping out of football altogether.
At NCSA we stress to student athletes that the decisions they make will impact their next 40 years. When looking at prospective schools it is extremely important for recruits to ask both athletic and academic questions. In the end they will have to live with the decision. That is why it is more important than ever to get started the right way!
