2008 Woodie Awards
Large state schools have 'jock majors'
Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: News
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BIRMINGHAM (AP) - Chances are, if you play football at the University of Alabama, you're majoring in general studies. At Auburn University, lots of football players apparently want to be sociologists. And at UAB, history is a popular degree choice among players.
The Birmingham News analyzed degree choices listed in the media guides of each of the state's big three schools and found that each appears to have so-called "jock majors," or degree programs that attract large numbers of football players.
At Alabama, the most popular football major is general studies in the College of Human Environmen-tal Sciences, the newspaper reported.
Twenty-six percent of football players majored in general studies, compared with 2 percent of all Alabama students.
The most popular football major at Auburn is sociology, accounting for 17 percent of the team's declared majors. This season, football players are 35 times more likely to major in sociology than the student body. Less than 1 percent of the student body chooses that major.
Since summer, Auburn has been investigating the expanded number of directed-reading courses in sociology and some other fields - courses that produced mostly high grades. Two professors have resigned.
The paper reported that 22 percent of UAB football players are majoring in history, followed by 16 percent in communication studies and 15 percent in criminal justice. Those majors represent 2 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent of the student body, respectively.
The clustering of athletes in certain majors isn't necessarily unethical or against a university's policy, and is common on most campuses.
"I don't know why anybody in the world would expect the students who arrive with lesser academic credentials not to end up in the easiest majors," said Alabama law Professor Gene Marsh, the school's former faculty athletics representative.
"But people who say it's OK to end up with athletes huddled in particular majors because of their time demands don't understand reality. There are many students working many hours a week in part-time jobs" and they do not cluster into easy majors, he told the News.
The Birmingham News analyzed degree choices listed in the media guides of each of the state's big three schools and found that each appears to have so-called "jock majors," or degree programs that attract large numbers of football players.
At Alabama, the most popular football major is general studies in the College of Human Environmen-tal Sciences, the newspaper reported.
Twenty-six percent of football players majored in general studies, compared with 2 percent of all Alabama students.
The most popular football major at Auburn is sociology, accounting for 17 percent of the team's declared majors. This season, football players are 35 times more likely to major in sociology than the student body. Less than 1 percent of the student body chooses that major.
Since summer, Auburn has been investigating the expanded number of directed-reading courses in sociology and some other fields - courses that produced mostly high grades. Two professors have resigned.
The paper reported that 22 percent of UAB football players are majoring in history, followed by 16 percent in communication studies and 15 percent in criminal justice. Those majors represent 2 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent of the student body, respectively.
The clustering of athletes in certain majors isn't necessarily unethical or against a university's policy, and is common on most campuses.
"I don't know why anybody in the world would expect the students who arrive with lesser academic credentials not to end up in the easiest majors," said Alabama law Professor Gene Marsh, the school's former faculty athletics representative.
"But people who say it's OK to end up with athletes huddled in particular majors because of their time demands don't understand reality. There are many students working many hours a week in part-time jobs" and they do not cluster into easy majors, he told the News.
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