Why Students Select a College or a University

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH At a very high percentage of both public and private universities academic budgets are under strain because of all sorts of expenditures on non-academic programs, initiatives, and enterprises. One of the largest of these expenditures is typically on intercollegiate athletics, and the athletics budgets almost never include spending on stadiums, arenas,…

Jay Smith Challenges Inadequate Reforms to Collegiate Athletics

POSTED BY KELLY HAND In a new op-ed* in the Wall Street Journal, Jay Smith, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, comments on reforms to college basketball recently proposed by Condoleeza Rice and her NCAA-appointed Commission on College Basketball. He is skeptical about the commission’s recommendations to address corruption because they…

Graduation Rates among College Football Players

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH We often hear concerns expressed about Division I athletes who help to generate significant sports-related revenue for their universities but who do not complete degrees and who do not have extended professional careers or do not even get professional contracts. But when one considers that Division II players typically do not…

Politics and Football

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is a summary, provided in the News Hour daily newsletter, of an article titled “College Football and Presidential Politics,” written by Lisa Desjardins for PBS: Last night’s college football championship sparked a nerdy late-night question: If a handful of states can dominate a particular sport, is the same true for…