Athletes, faculty contend certain majors not 'easier'

High-profile athletic departments across the country have struggled for years to shake the notion that athletes coast to graduation and scoop up "easy" degrees.


A recent USA Today investigation doesn't make the battle any easier.

As NCAA academic requirements tighten, some sports programs reportedly scramble to keep certain athletes academically eligible.

So how do they get traditionally under-performing student-athletes to squeak by? According to the USA Today report, they gravitate - in hefty blocs - toward the same majors. This may signal these disciplines have less rigorous curricula, according to the report.


USA Today analyzed the majors of upperclassmen student-athletes in five sports at 162 Division 1 colleges, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.


It found teammates tend to cluster within similar departments, some to an extreme degree.

For example, all seven of the upperclassmen on the University of Texas at El Paso's men's basketball team majored in multidisciplinary studies last year, as did 21 of 29 on the football squad.

According to the report, 40 percent of juniors and seniors on NU's 2007-2008 baseball team and 30.4 percent of juniors and seniors on the football team majored in sociology.

The Daily Nebraskan analyzed this year's Husker basketball, softball, volleyball, baseball and football rosters using media guides and the university's Web site. Only athletes with declared majors were considered for the analysis.


Of the 81 football players with declared majors, 17.3 percent are in sociology, and 19.8 percent are business administration majors.

Slightly more than 22 percent of baseball players are pursuing degrees in sociology.

These tallies fall below USA Today's 25 percent benchmark that signifies a non-random cluster. However, 38.5 percent of men's basketball players major in sociology.

Communication studies attracts 30 percent of the volleyball team and 27.2 percent of softball players.

Using the report's 25 percent standard, NU basketball, softball and volleyball players aren't coincidentally traveling similar degree paths.

Athletes don't flock to similar areas of study because they're easy, said the chairmen for UNL's sociology and communication studies departments.

Dan Hoyt, sociology professor and department chairman, said sociology's focus on diversity often lures athletes – many of whom are minorities – to the discipline.

Out of UNL's 18,526 enrolled undergraduates, 204 are sociology majors, according to Registration and Records. 

Nearly 14 percent of sociology majors, or 28 of the 204, play baseball, men's basketball, volleyball or football, according to the DN analysis.


As for communication studies, department chairman Bill Seiler said he isn't clear about what attracts athletes, but he realizes it's an area athletes drift toward.

Twenty-three of the 239 undergraduates, nearly 10 percent, pursuing communication studies degrees are on the baseball, women's basketball, softball, football or volleyball rosters.

Justin Baumgartner, a senior sociology major and long snapper for the football team, said sharing a major with 13 teammates hasn't made college a breeze.

Sure, sociology may not be as time-demanding as some majors, and it's nice to collaborate with teammates for homework, he admitted, but "you still have to study for all your tests just as hard."

Baumgartner, a transfer student from Cheyenne, Wyo., said he chose sociology because he's thinking about landing in public relations, and he's good with people – not because advisers pushed him down a "simpler" path.

When asked about the stereotype of coddled athletes, he responded, "We still do the work that all the other sociology majors do, but they're not getting the bad rep" for pursuing an "easy" degree.

"When people say we can coast by, that's a joke. ...I haven't seen a teacher at Nebraska who lets you coast by just because you're an athlete."


teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com