Study links winning football, declining grades

While LSU is piggybacking off the extra attention garnered by its undefeated and top-ranked football team to highlight its academic successes, a new study by three University of Oregon economists says when a college football team is successful, students put down the books and pick up some beers. At least, that’s the case at the University of Oregon (whose Ducks lost to the Tigers in the season opener in Arlington, Texas). In examining the grade-point averages of the Oregon student body and the performance of the Ducks’ football team, the researchers found a relationship between declining grades and success on the field. The study, “Are Big-Time Sports a Threat to Student Achievement?”, was released this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research. “Our results support the concern that big-time sports are a threat to American higher education,” the paper’s authors wrote. They say their work is among the first to take a look at the “nonmonetary costs” of college sports. Some 24% of male students said that the success of Oregon’s football team definitely or probably decreased the amount of time they spent studying for classes, compared with 9% for women. Men and women reported that they were more likely to consume alcohol, skip class or party in the wake of a win compared with a loss. Read the full story by the New York Times here, and access the full study here.