By Stephen Collins '74

Colby athletes on the gridiron. A new book examines impact of athletics on colleges and universities.

In their 2001 book, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values, James L. Schulman and William G. Bowen took a hard look at the impact of athletics on a broad range of academically selective colleges and universities, Colby among them. This September a follow-up study will be published in a book by Bowen and Sarah A. Levin titled Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values. Colby will figure prominently in the new book, too, since it focused on 33 institutions, including NESCAC schools, and since President William Adams chaired the NESCAC presidents' group in the midst of the study.

Reclaiming the Game examines admissions and academic experiences of recruited athletes, walk-ons and other students. Advance notices from the publisher (Princeton University Press) promise the book will provide evidence that recruited athletes at these schools are up to four times more likely to gain admission than other applicants with similar academic credentials, that recruited athletes are substantially more likely to end up in the bottom third of the college class and that as a group they achieve less academically than their test scores and high school grades would predict.

"Reclaiming the Game is essential reading for those truly committed to the educational value of intercollegiate athletics," Adams wrote after reading a manuscript. "Bowen and Levin clearly document the pressures and practices that threaten to replace the educational ideal of athletic participation with a purely competitive one. What is more important, they begin to show us a way out. This book is a wakeup call for leaders, coaches, parents and athletes at our best private colleges and universities."

Information from the publisher is available at pup.princeton.edu/titles/7577.html.