The Academic Market, Intercollegiate Sports, and Academic Standards

Abstract

Periodically intercollegiate sports programs come under severe attack from professors in departments far removed from the athletic programs of the university. The criticism usually raised is that sports programs employ resources that could otherwise be used in more traditional academic programs; that although sports programs contribute to the entertainment of the student body, they detract from the time students spend studying and from the availability of other learning resources for the rest of the academic community. In defense of intercollegiate sports, athletic directors and coaches are prone to point to the benefits received by the many athletes who participate and to the fact (when this is the case) that the programs are paying their own way. However, supporters of intercollegiate sports have been unable to demonstrate very persuasively that their programs can actually contribute to upgrading the academic standards in other disciplines.