https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1797904-uga-football-team-graduation-rat
Kayla Peeples
The University of Georgia football team's graduation rate increased 13 percent from the previous year reflecting the steady support academic services administers to its players. Kayla Peeples
The University of Georgia football team, off by one percent, nearly matched the overall 83 percent graduation rate for the University in academic year 2012-2013. The team’s 82 percent graduation success rate, ranked the program number one among its division one competitors, making it the highest rate the football program achieved since 2005. The National Collegiate Athletic Association designed its graduation success rate to measure the movement made by athletes through the six years given to obtain a baccalaureate at four-year institutions. The current graduation rate of the football team show combined efforts made by student-athletes and the athletic department to keep up with nonstudent-athlete peers in the classroom. First-year-bio-technology major, Shannon Bryant, said although the athletes in her classes are “less strenuous”, but as college students going to class is seen as an “accomplishment” for anyone. “I think it’s good that it [rate] has gone up. It also shows it goes along with the admission requirement statistics, if it’s the same,” said Bryant. Compared to nonstudent-athletes, the hard work just does not stop on the football field. Players are required by coaches to put equal focus on their academics. Fourth-year-journalism major and wide-receiver, Chris Conley, 21, said although it is part of coaches’ job to emphasize the importance of school work and sports, in professors’ classrooms you are a student first and foremost. “They [coaches] wouldn’t be hired if you weren’t making the grades, they wouldn’t be hired if you’re not eligible. Some people in the academic building could care less about your sport honestly because they believe you’re here to get your degree from the university,” said Conley. The 13 percent football graduation rate growth from the previous year demonstrated the improvement the team makes with each entering freshmen class, but the success comes with setbacks in players who fail to see the importance of graduation. Ted White, associate athletic director for academic services, said at times it is frustrating to get players to see the outcome of graduating with a degree that will allow them to have a fulfilling career after college when they overlook support from academic services. “That’s the hardest part about this job is doing what you think is best to support students and fighting them for that,” said White. “But then when you’re forcing someone to come to a tutoring session, forcing someone to go to class and you’re forcing them to pick a major, it’s like come on. And it’s a small group it’s not like it’s a big group and were staffed enough to do it, but that’s why we’re here. To keep fighting that good fight every day and hopefully the light goes on.” Yasmeen Freightman
Academic standards are changing and molding for student-athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and at the University of Georgia. In order to be eligible to enter a Division 1 university and stay eligible under a football scholarship, college-bound student-athletes don't really have to bring their 'A' games. In 2011, the NCAA made some new and very dramatic changes to D1 initial-eligibility academic standards, which are in place for high school students in the class of 2016. According to the NCAA, the current core GPA for high school students to become initially eligible must be a 2.3. It was a 2.0 with the previous requirements. Additionally, depending on a student's high school GPA, they might be required to score higher on the SAT. In the previous requirements, students with a core GPA of 2.5 needed to score at least an 820 on the SAT. With the new standards, students with a core GPA of 2.5 need to score at least 1000. College-bound student-athletes must also complete 16 core courses. 10 of the 16 courses must be completed before the seventh semester (senior year) of high school. Seven of those 10 courses must be in English, Math, or Science. The NCAA has also implemented a status called "Academic Redshirt" which allows incoming university student-athletes to receive a scholarship and to have a spot on the team, but not be allowed to compete in their first year of enrollment. However, to be an "Academic Redshirt," a student's core GPA and SAT/ACT scores are standardized lower than "Full Qualifiers." "Academic Redshirts" can have a 2.0 core GPA in high school to be allowed to play in a D1 school. However, just because a college-bound student seeking to participate in university athletics meets the NCAA academic requirements, it doesn't mean they will be admitted to the college they apply to. Every college has their own academic standards of admission and UGA is no exception to this rule. According to the university's admission web page, "'demonstrated academic achievement' is the primary factor in first-year admission decisions at the University of Georgia...The academic review of first-year applications centers on three criteria: the student’s grade point average (GPA) in core academic courses, the rigor of a student’s course selection, and his or her best combination of scores on the SAT or ACT." According to admissions data provided by Cappex.com, the majority of students in 2012 who were admitted to UGA had a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher and SAT scores of 1700 or higher. In order for a student-athlete to stay academically afloat, he/she must maintain a GPA of a 2.0 while at the university. According to UGA academic policies, any student who makes LESS than a 2.0 cumulative GPA will be placed on scholastic probation. Ted White, the associate athletic director for academic support, says that every college-bound student-athlete must not only meet NCAA minimum requirements to play sports, but must meet UGA academic standards in order to be admitted to the university. However, he also says that most major D1 programs have accepted the NCAA minimum standards as their minimum standards. "A lot of schools use the NCAA standards as their standards because there is a quote-on-quote 'even playing field' with their competitors for recruiting," White says. White explains that there are procedures in place, so that if a student-athlete applies to UGA through its general admission department and is not admitted after he or she sends in the application, there are additional rounds in place where committees can evaluate the student. "Nobody wants to establish a higher admissions rate because you might not be able to recruit the student-athlete you want to recruit because you're holding yourself to a higher standard than all your competitors," White states. So if an aspiring college-bound student-athlete only needs core GPA of a 2.3 and an SAT score of at least 1000 to be admitted into a Division 1 school, is that too low a standard? Is academics the cost for a student-athlete getting to play the sport of his/her dreams? http://www.ncaa.org/initial-eligibility http://www.clearinghousecalculator.org/downloads/NCAA_Class_of_2016_Standards_CoreCourseGPA.pdf http://student-svcs.sports.uga.edu/current-student-athletes/ncaa-uga-academic-policies/ http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/university-of-georgia-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm https://www.admissions.uga.edu/article/admission-information-for-first-year-students.html The stigma associated with student-athletes is that they care only about one thing: sports. Players of intercollegiate activities embrace their athletic responsibility all while being a student; many nonstudent-athletes do not get to see that from the outside looking in. However long their days may be, student-athletes face a full plate of schoolwork, practice, games, and meetings, while still attempting to have a social life.
I sat down with three star wide receiver and honor student, Chris Conley, 21, who is over coming the “jock” image as the only football player in Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4PlQS8NRg Yasmeen Freightman Athletics is undoubtedly one of the most compelling traits of the University of Georgia, and all of the colleges and universities within the Southeastern Conference. Graduation success rates within each sport, however, vary within each school including UGA. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association reports, the graduation rate in women's sports varies from 83 percent to 100 percent. For the men, the rates vary between 59 percent and 89 percent. Football players at UGA have a graduation success rate of 82 percent. Conversely, men's basketball has one of the lowest success rates of all the sports: 63 percent. For almost a decade, the graduation rates within each group have steadily risen. For men's basketball, rates have risen from 33 percent to 63 percent, while football players have had success rates from 45 percent to 82 percent.
The question is, why aren't all athletes within each sport subjected to complementary academic success? Of course, all students, athletes or not, are not the same, but our student athletes are under a particular culture where they are given mentors, tutors and equal amount of attention no matter what sport he or she plays. 22-year old Kizmik McPherson, a 4th-year Food Science student at UGA, believes since UGA is a football school, more attention is paid to football players. She uses the term "sorry" to describe the university's basketball team. "The pressure isn't on the leadership in basketball, as much as it's on the leadership in football," McPherson states. "[Basketball players] aren't in the spotlight as much as football players." McPherson goes on to say that even though every athlete has the resources, such as tutoring and mentoring to succeed, football is the money-making sport. Making sure football athletes are succeeding both athletically and academically since they receive more attention from the public, is intrinsically more important than working on the academic and athletic success for basketball student-athletes. |