Comparative Levels of Expressed Academic Motivation Among Anglo and African American University Student-Athletes

For some years, news reports have revealed low graduation rates for college athletes who participate in revenue-generating sports such as football, basketball, and baseball (N.C. State Players, 1993). The embarrassment that such reports cause the involved universities has stimulated administrators and concerned faculty members to search for the reasons behind such performances. Particularly disturbing is an analysis of athletes' academic performances and results when they are categorized by ethnicity. A survey of research literature on this subject suggests that one aspect of athletes' academic performance that has received little attention has been that of these students' motivation to succeed in their sports in contrast to their motivation to succeed in their academic studies. Critics have argued that because National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports serve as training and recruiting agencies for professional sports, those sports become increasingly professionalized, encouraging participants to direct their primary attention to performing well at their sports in deference to doing well academically. The standard index for measuring academic performance uses graduation rates. This study starts with previous student-athlete graduation data research as background in reporting African American academic performance. In addition, it probes two possible causal