#NCAA

From Fleeting Adulation to Substantive Education: Harbaugh, the University of Michigan, and a New Opportunity in Big Time College Sports

Submitted by:  Dr. Solomon Hughes, Stanford University

Long gone are the days of the college football tramp, the free agent athlete who roamed the country in the early 1900’s (near the start of college athletic competitions) in order to offer his football talents for a season, in exchange for adulation, room, board, and expenses – but not classes.

College football has long since evolved from those days and students must be enrolled in a full-time load of classes in order to compete on the football team, but for all the work that has gone into creating this reformed world of college football, there are still major concerns around what college football players get from their higher education experience.  Do they leave with an education that better suits them to positively contribute to the world around them, or do they leave with only the memories of a football career to think back on?

In his first year as Stanford’s head football coach, former university of Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh famously disparaged  his alma mater Michigan for what he considered was its propensity for luring high achieving athletes to the institution but not encouraging their investment into the educational offerings of the university, thus leaving them under-prepared to navigate life after college football.

Coming off a successful first-year at the helm of the University of Michigan’s football team, Jim Harbaugh and the University of Michigan will be center stage this upcoming college football season after securing  one of college footballs top recruiting classes, that class includes the nations top high school prospect, defensive tackle Rashan Gary, an incredibly talented football player that leaps tall buildings.

Jaw-dropping recruiting classes aside.

Harbaugh has stated that Michigan is a good school, but that as a former player he saw high school football players recruited that  were far less prepared academically than their non-athlete peers.  According to Harbaugh those same players were then steered down the academic path of least resistance while being exhorted to give their all on the football field. The investment they made to improve as football players reaped success on the field. They were adulated on the field by the Michigan community, but not educated in the Universities’ classrooms. When their athletic eligibility expired, their job prospects beyond professional sports were far more limited than their non-athlete University of Michigan peers.

Harbaugh appears to understand this and, hopefully, is doing something to change it. A Michigan alum who has reached the pinnacle of success as an NFL coach, Harbaugh understands the big time college athlete’s life and casts a disapproving eye on the fate that has befallen the overwhelming majority who don’t pan out professionally and enter the world that begins where their athletic eligibility ends, without a degree or a meaningful education to leverage into a career. Thus far it appears that he has the track record to prove it. According to the NCAA’s annual updates on the graduation rates of student athletes his very first class of freshman at Stanford had nearly a 100% graduation rate. Time will tell if he changes what he experienced at Michigan as a student.

Big time college sports are at a crossroads. While football and basketball revenues soar, one recent study reveals that 98 percent of all college sports programs graduate their football and basketball players at rates lower than all other student athletes. The soaring revenues generated by their athletic prowess provide entertainment for the masses (and money to fund all other NCAA sports) but  the academic outcomes  of those same revenue generating players continue to lag at alarming rates.

Perhaps Harbaugh’s return to Michigan (a model public institution) is an encouraging sign. While at Stanford he participated in a recruiting process that included multiple campus partners outside of the athletic department. The partnership across the academic-athletic divide ensured that students who were recruited to play football at Stanford were vetted as capable of thriving at Stanford as scholars. This partnership extends well past the initial commitment to attend the institution, and support in and outside of the athletic department is offered for the entirety of the student athlete’s tenure.

Additionally Stanford’s commitments to maintaining contact with alumni student athletes allows incoming recruits to look ahead and see where the initial signing of a letter of intent could eventually lead if they invest in the many academic resources available on campus.

Let us hope that in a few years (when the measurable are available)  we will be able to say that the Harbaugh and  Michigan reunion injected integrity into the spaces of higher education where it is desperately needed, and that the players he recruits thrive in a college culture where education precedes adulation.