Correlation Studies of Academic Excellence and Big‑Time Athletics

(A corrected version of an article published in International Review of Sport Sociology, 3(11), Warsaw, Poland 1976, pp.57-69.)

L. David Roper (roperld@vt.edu) and Keith Snow (U.S.A.)

Abstract

Given particular measures of undergraduate excellence (U), graduate-school excellence (G), football excellence (F) and basketball excellence (B), we rank American universities in all four categories. Then the six correlation coefficients for all six pairs of the four categories are calculated: CUG=+0.033±0.053, CUF= –0.418±0.046,    CUB= –0.496±0.033, CGF= –0.540±0.032, CGB= –0.556±0.038, CFB= –0.453±0.030. Several criticisms of our study and suggestions for future studies are made. Caution is particularly given that CUG may be considerably higher than the number we obtain.

I.       Introduction

 

One occasionally hears the following justifications for the massive financial and sociological resources that are expended by universities and colleges for big‑time (i.e., highly visible) athletics:

(1) It attracts good students to the school, directly and indirectly.

(2) It attracts financial contributions (private and public) which enable programs of academic excellence.

 

It is interesting to consider whether these are the real reasons for big‑time athletics being in institutions of higher education, or whether there are other reasons along with or instead of these reasons.

To the author’s knowledge no systematic study of the veracity of these justifications has been published. The study reported here is a first attempt to do so. There are many faults with the approach adopted here. which we shall discuss later. Nevertheless, we believe that our results are valid, and we encourage others to refine or expand on our methods. Indeed, we offer aid to those who wish to do so.

In the next section we define “big‑time athletics” and specify our measure of it. In Section III we indicate our measures of graduate and undergraduate academic excellence. Section IV contains the mathematical definition of the correlation coefficient; this section may be skipped by readers who are not mathematically inclined. Finally, Section V gives our conclusions, some criticism of our approach and suggestions for further work.

II.      Big Time Athletics

 

We define “big‑time” college and university athletics to be varsity sports that receive the major attention of the news media. Occasional casual glances at newspapers will convince one that men’s football (American, not soccer) and basketball are by far the front runners. Therefore, we further restrict our definition of big‑time athletics to men’s football and basketball. Table 1 lists the Associated Press Polls and the major bowl games and tournaments winners for football and basketball for the years 1968 through 1972. From Table 1 we calculate the “score” listed in Table 2 by moving an entry up one rank when it won a major bowl game or tournament and then adding the ranks for all five years for that entry and dividing by five. (A team that was ranked in one or more years but was unranked in another year was optimistically assumed to be in the twenty-first rank in the unranked year.) An unranked entry that won a bowl game or tournament was assumed to be ranked twentieth for that year. The football and basketball rankings given in Tables 2 and 5 were then obtained by ordering the entries according to decreasing score as given in Table 2.

Table 1

Associated Press Polls and Major Bowl Game and Tournament Winners

FOOTBALL

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1. Ohio State

1. Texas

1. Nebraska

1. Nebraska

1. Southern California

2. Penn. State

2. Pennsylvania State

2. Notre Dame

2. Oklahoma

2. Oklahoma

3. Texas

3. Southern California

3. Texas

3. Colorado

3. Texas

4. Southern California

4. Ohio State

4. Tennessee

4. Alabama

4. Nebraska

5. Notre Dame

5. Notre Dame

5. Ohio State

5. Pennsylvania State

5. Auburn

6. Arkansas

6. Missouri

6. Arizona State

6. Michigan

6. Michigan

7. Kansas

7. Arkansas

7. Louisiana State

7. Georgia

7. Alabama

8. Georgia

8. Mississippi

8. Stanford

8. Arizona State

8. Tennessee

9. Missouri

9. Michigan

9. Michigan

9. Tennessee

9. Ohio State

10. Purdue

10. Louisiana State

10. Auburn

10. Stanford

10. Pennsylvania State

11. Oklahoma

11. Nebraska

11. Arkansas

11. Louisiana State

11. Louisiana State

12. Michigan

12. Houston

12. Toledo

12. Auburn

12. North Carolina

13. Tennessee

13. UCLA

13. Georgia Tech

13. Notre Dame

13. Arizona State

14. Southern Methodist

14. Florida

14. Dartmouth

14. Toledo

14. Notre Dame

15. Oregon State

15. Tennessee

15. Southern California

15. Mississippi

15. UCLA

16. Auburn

16. Colorado

16. Air Force

16. Arkansas

16. Colorado

17. Alabama

17. West Virginia

17. Tulane

17. Houston

17. North Carolina St.

18. Houston

18. Purdue

18. Pennsylvania State

18. Texas

18. Louisville

19. Louisiana State

19. Stanford

19. Houston

19. Washington (Seattle)

19. Washington State

20. Ohio

20. Auburn

20. Oklahoma (tie)

20. Southern California

20. Georgia Tech

 

 

20. Mississippi (tie)

 

 

[Roanoke Times

Sat. 4 Jan. 1969]

[Roanoke Times

Sun. 4 Jan. 1970]

Roanoke Times

Wed. 6 Jan. 1971]

[Roanoke Times

Tues. 4 Jan 1972]

[Roanoke Times

Thurs. 4 Jan 1973]

Bowl Winners:

Cotton-Texas

Cotton-Texas

Cotton-Notre Dame

Cotton-Pennsylvania State

Cotton-Texas

Sugar-Arkansas

Sugar-Mississippi

Sugar-Tennessee

Sugar-Oklahoma

Sugar-Oklahoma

Rose-Ohio State

Rose-Southern California

Rose-Stanford

Rose-Stanford

Rose-Southern Calif.

Orange-Pennsylvania State

Orange-Pennsylvania State

Orange-Nebraska

Orange-Nebraska

Orange-Nebraska (forfeited)

[Roanoke Times

Thurs. 2 Jan 1969]

[Roanoke Times

Fri. 2 Jan 1970]

[Roanoke Times

Sat. 2 Jan 1971]

[Roanoke Times

Sun. 2 Jan 1942]

[Roanoke Times

Tues. 2 Jan 1973]

BASKETBALL

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1. UCLA

1. Kentucky

1. UCLA

1. UCLA

1. UCLA

2. LaSalle

2. UCLA

2. Marquette

2. Pennsylvania

2. North Carolina St.

3. Santa Clara

3. St. Bonaventure

3. Pennsylvania

3. North Carolina

3. Minnesota

4. North Carolina

4. Jacksonville

4. Kansas

4. Louisville

4. Long Beach State

5. Davidson

5. New Mexico State

5.Southern California

5. Long Beach State

5. Providence

6. Purdue

6. South Carolina

6.South Carolina

6. South Carolina

6. Marquette

7. Kentucky

7. Iowa

7.Western Kentucky

7. Marquette

7. Houston

8. St. John’s, NY

8. Marquette

8. Kentucky

8. Brigham Young

8. North Carolina

9. Duquesne

9. Notre Dame

9. Fordham

9. Southwestern Louisiana

9. Indiana

10. Villanova

10. North Carolina State

10. Ohio State

10. Marshall

10. Maryland

11. Drake

11. Florida State

11.Jacksonville

11. Memphis State

11. Kansas State

12. New Mexico State

12. Houston

12. Notre Dame

12. Hawaii

12. Missouri

13. South Carolina

13. Pennsylvania

13. North Carolina

13. Maryland

13. Syracuse

14. Marquette

14. Drake

14. Houston

14. Florida State

14. Southwestern Louisiana

15. Louisville

15. Davidson

15. Duquesne

15. Virginia

15. Memphis State

16. Boston College

16. Utah State

16. Long Beach State

16. Minnesota

16. Jacksonville

17. Notre Dame

17. Niagara

17. Tennessee

17. Oral Roberts

17. St. John’s, NY

18. Colorado

18. Western Kentucky

18. Villanova

18. Missouri

18. St. Joseph’s, PA

19. Kansas

19. Long Beach State

19. Drake

19. Houston

19. San Francisco State

20. Illinois

20. Southern California

20. Brigham Young

20. Indiana

20. Kentucky

[Roanoke Times

Wed 5 Mar. 1969]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 10 Mar. 1970]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 16 Mar. 1971]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 7 Mar. 1972]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 7 Mar. 1973]

Tournament Winners:

NCAA-UCLA

NCAA-UCLA

NCAA-UCLA

NCAA-UCLA

NCAA-UCLA

NIT-Temple

NIT-Marquette

NIT-North Carolina

NIT-Maryland

NIT-Virginia Tech

[Roanoke Times

Wed 23 Mar. 1969]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 22 Mar. 1970]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 28 Mar. 1971]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 26 Mar. 1972]

[Roanoke Times

Wed 26 & 27 Mar. 1973]

 

 

Table 2

Football and Basketball Rankings

Football

Score

Rank

Basketball

Score

Rank

Texas

5.0

1

UCLA

1.0

1

Pennsylvania State

6.8

2

Marquette

7.2

2

Nebraska

7.0

3

North Carolina

9.6

3

Notre Dame