USA Today posted an interactive graphic demonstrating how different types of college athletes cluster into majors differently at different schools (via Montclair Socioblog). For example, the screenshot below includes the data for all athletes in the study. Each rectangle represents a school; the darker the blue, the more concentrated major choices are for that team at that school. In this iteration, the darkest blue rectangle in the “social science” category represents Louisiana Tech at which 80 percent of male basketball players major in Sociology:
This screenshot features football players only. At Georgia Tech, 82 percent of football players major in Business:
If you visit the site, you can manipulate the graphic as you like and see what school and team each rectangle represents.
Certain majors have long been rumored to be athlete friendly and I think this actual data sheds a lot of light on the false stereotype of both disciplines and athletes.
The article doesn’t speculate as to why teammates cluster, but we could…
I was recently speaking to a colleague at my College who remembered a time during which a good percentage of the football players majored in Sociology. He suggested that this was because one of the most high-profile football players, one who was very well-liked by his teammates and had a leadership role on the team, majored in Sociology. Since that player has left the College, the percent of football players in our major has decreased. In that sense, part of the explanation for why teammates cluster may be more social psychological than sociological.
What are your theories?
Comments 6
Vidya — March 12, 2009
Curious how this compares to the percentages of *non-athletes* who major in particular subjects? Otherwise, the data has little relevance, I think.
Is there a widespread perception that Sociology is a relatively undemanding area of study? (I'm new to teaching, and am struggling to understand why so many students of unbelievably deficient academic ability have landed in my tutorials.)
Katie in Berkeley — March 12, 2009
It also seems like an exercise in small number statistics. I have a hard time seeing much in the 80% figure when it represents 4 out of 5.
alby — March 13, 2009
I'm not saying social sciences, humanities, business, and/or communications are easy majors, but at least in my experience there seems to be that perception.
Anonymous — March 14, 2009
A friend of mine in grad school went through undergrad on an athletic scholarship. He said that his coach picked all his classes.
ZugTheMegasaurus — June 9, 2010
I know it's been a year since anyone posted on this topic, but I'll add because I think I have something valuable to say.
When I was in college, I majored in anthropology and African-American history. My electives were pretty much sociology and ethnic studies. And every semester, I ended up in classes with this same group of 7 football players (or some number of them). They were the best to work with: fun, hardworking, collaborative, and just really nice people to boot.
I asked them why they always took the same courses as I did, since we had different majors and career plans. One guy responded, "these are the only classes where people don't assume I'm just getting by on a football scholarship". Every other class, especially math and science courses (one was a comp. sci. major), made them feel unwelcome; that the big black jocks couldn't be smart enough to actually want to take tough courses (and pass on their merits).
Blix — December 13, 2011
Where are the majors in the arts?