The Chicago Tribune misses the point on college sports

Last updated on: March 16, 2014 at 8:38 pm by Jane the Actuary

The Chicago Tribune misses the point on college sports 2014-03-16T20:38:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So last weekend I was in the mood to write about college sports, and my wish that schools would stop dishonestly running minor league football and basketball teams. And today the Tribune has an article about obscure sports being a venue to scholarships for women to chose to specialize in them, “Women make college gains with low-profile sports.”

College sports are booming, thanks to gargantuan TV contracts and the increasing use of athletics as a marketing tool, and women’s teams are enjoying much of the bounty. NCAA statistics for 2011-12 show they are chipping away at the scholarship gap after decades of inequality, with much of the growth coming in sports that barely dent the public consciousness.

The premise of the article is that, unlike men’s sports, the scholarships for women’s sports are spread across a diverse range of teams, so that women have the chance to gain scholarships by choosing less common sports to specialize in.

The article provides a table with “odds” of getting scholarships, dividing the number of high school athletes by the number of scholarships available to produce the metric of “athletes per scholarship” — a faulty metric because in many of these sports, kids compete in ways other than high school teams, making the “odds” seem better than is truly the case. According to this table, the large majority of the sports with the best “odds” are women’s sports, but many of these are (a) sports that require money to pursue and (b) sports where the competition is generally in clubs rather than high school teams. For instance:

Women’s equestrian: 3 athletes per scholarship (no men’s category listed) = 477 scholarships
Women’s rowing: 3 (no men’s category listed) = 2,087 scholarships
Women’s fencing: 16 (29 for men) = 110 scholarships for women, 66 for men
Women’s rifle: 14 (125 for men) = 70 scholarships for women, 16 for men

Articles like this one, which continues by profiling girls/women who have won such scholarships, continue to promote the idea that the ticket to a college scholarship is athletics. Sometimes such an article does point out that parents pursuing scholarships for their children can spend far more in expenses on the chosen sport than the value of any potential scholarship, but it still takes it for granted that this is an appropriate thing for colleges to do.

When are we going to start questioning this premise? When are we going to say that college are about academics, and not having a winning [name the sport] team? I’ve got four more years until I’m faced with making the decision, with my son, on how much money my husband and I are willing to spend on his tuition bills, and what that means for his college choice. Can we please fix this before then?

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 15, 2014

Parking a link: Foreign Students

Next Post

March 17, 2014 Is this a college admissions office, or the NSA?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: God appeared to Moses in a burning bush on Mount Sinai.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE