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.
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.
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.