The number of athletes in big-time football and basketball programs is small compared to the student bodies of the schools, but doing right by them would get to the heart of the complaints about the system’s exploitation of student-athletes, the scandals associated with the programs, and the way athletics can undermine the academic mission of schools. Mandated lifetime scholarships in these sports could also be a partial corrective to the failure of predominantly white institutions to properly serve their black male students, a disproportionate number of whom make up the rosters of the nation’s elite college football and basketball teams and who do not graduate. (Statistics show that at my alma mater, African American men make up 56% of the football and basketball players but have a graduation rate of 43%, 26 points behind all athletes and 47 points behind the general student body.)

Source: Los Angeles Times January 04, 2019 11:03 UTC