Academic Progress at FBS Schools Continues, But So Do Racial Disparities

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) has issued “Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the Academic Records of the 2023-2024 Bowl-Bound College Football Teams.” The study assesses football teams at 82 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions. NCAA statistics were used for this study.

The overall academic success of college football student-athletes has remained the same from last year with an 83% Graduation Success Rate (GSR), but the gap between Black and white football student-athletes has increased. The average GSR for white football student-athletes increased from 91% in 2022 to 92.5% in 20023. The average GSR for Black football student-athletes decreased from 79.5% in 2022 to 79.3% in 2023.

Dr. Adrien BouchetDr. Adrien Bouchet, the director of TIDES and primary author of the study, said it is important to keep a focus on academics while the on the field product keeps getting more commercialized. He noted that this isn’t only the case for football, but in many sports, such as women’s volleyball and softball and men’s baseball.

The four universities that were selected to compete in the College Football Playoff for the National Championship graduated the following overall percentages of their football student-athletes: University of Alabama (93%), University of Michigan (89%), University of Washington (84%) and University of Texas at Austin (75%). The differences between Black and white student-athletes are: Alabama (92%/94%), Michigan (88%/100%), Washington (81%/95%) and Texas-Austin (68%/92%). The report refers to those gaps as disturbing.

 “[The gap] continues to be an issue,” said Bouchet. “It has gotten better over the years, but there persistently remains this gap that we can’t seem to make a lot of headway in closing.”

The four universities showed solid numbers with their Academic Progress Rates (APR) with Alabama 995, Michigan 987, Washington 986 and Texas-Austin 974.