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Innovations
Reclaiming the Game builds on the substantial base of The Game of Life. The earlier book, by James Shulman and William G. Bowen, was the first effort to quantify the impact of intercollegiate athletics on American colleges and universities, a subject historically plagued by over-reliance on anecdote. Reclaiming the Game introduces many new and valuable features to the analysis, some of the most important being the up-to-date data used, the focused nature of the group studied, identification of recruited vs. walk-on athletes, an exploration of the driving forces behind the athletic divide, and practical recommendations for reform.
DATA
Extends the data analysis to the class that entered the schools in 1995 (the putative class of 1999). New data show that the divide between intercollegiate athletes and other students-highlighted by persistent and spreading academic underperformance of athletes relative to other students with similar backgrounds and test scores-not only still exists, but has, in fact, gotten worse.
GROUP STUDIED
Focuses in-depth on the institutions in the Ivy League and on liberal arts colleges and universities in Division III, rather than any of the "big-time" sports schools. The completeness of Ivy and NESCAC data confirm that the findings apply to the full range of institutions in each group-there are no outliers.
IDENTIFICATION OF RECRUITED ATHLETES
Substantial new empirical research by the authors allows differentiation between recruited athletes (those who were included on a coach's list sent to the admissions office) and all other athletes ("walk-ons"). As a result, Bowen and Levin were able to assess the extent to which recruited athletes differ from walk-ons, as well as other students, in terms of admissions and academic performance (especially in relation to their academic credentials). The data reveal substantial differences between recruited and other athletes in these aspects. The data also permitted deeper analysis of the causes of underperformance, the extent of differences between male and female recruited athletes, and whether outcomes differ across sports and athletic conferences.
DRIVING FORCES
This study probes the causes of the growing athletic divide even more deeply than its predecessor and includes more textured explanations of the dynamic that is driving the process.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM
Discusses why the present academic-athletic divide is unacceptable, and puts forward recommendations for reform at the institutional, conference, and national level that seem most promising as steps toward re-grounding intercollegiate athletics in educational values. The book also presents some lessons on process and leadership that can be taken from recent efforts at reform.
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File created: 1/29/2008 |
