CNN Investigates College Athletics Admission Standards

[Stallion]

they sought Freedom of Information Requests from many State Schools in states required to release information. Unfortunately, the data is not consistent so its hard to compare apples to apples-some schools didn't release the exact info requested. Some big names like Alabama, Auburn and OU completely stonewalled. I will try to get a comparable comparison of the schools we compete with:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-a ... ?hpt=hp_t1

[Stallion]

THE THRESHOLD STANDARD:
According to several academic experts, the threshold for being college literate is a score of 400 on the SAT critical reading OR writing test. On the ACT, that threshold is 16.

TIME PERIOD-2007 to 2013

Stallion Comment-as discussed below Writing Test isn't a part of NCAA sliding scale and I don't think SMU or a bunch of other schools even consider it for admission. That hurts the ability to analyze data for purposes of NCAA admission purposes. Also, most schools I believe will allow admission based on highest composite score if they take test multiple time. In other words you add the highest score they achieved in Critical Reading and the highest score they achieved in Math for a composite score

[Stallion]

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS:
Football
-- 52/314 scored at or below the threshold on all tests taken(ie some took test multiple dates).
Men's basketball
-- 8/38 scored at or below the threshold on all tests taken.

17% below the threshold

[East Coast Mustang]

It's a real indictment of the American public education system to think someone could graduate HS and not make a 400 on a section of the SAT

[East Coast Mustang]

...also, an indictment of parents who truly don't give a [deleted] about ensuring their children are education (edit- that's a heck of a post to make a typo on)

[Stallion]

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
(Comment by Stallion-A&M didn't answer fully like Texas and Texas Tech did or separate into Mens Football and BB)

The university provided 118 sets of scores to CNN (ie merely a sample not a full disclosure like UT).

29 of 118 or about 25% scored below the threshold.

The average SAT score of the students-athletes (presumably ALL SPORTS) -last 5 years is 978.18.
The average ACT score of student-athletes provided ACT scores - last 5 years is 19.03.

[Stallion]

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
Football
70/194 of the ACT scores were 16 or below.
73/272 of the SAT scores were 400 or below.
Men's basketball
10/30 of the ACT scores were below the threshold.
9/30 of the SAT scores were below the threshold.

38% below threshold but based on large samples-especially in football it might be more accurate to say 38% below threshold on either/or SAT or ACT-I'm not sure. That's too many kids (466) for just 7 years so I'm thinking they double counted some players who may have taken multiple tests

[Stallion]

Apparently the average student scores 18 points lower on Critical Reading and 26 points lower on Writing v Mathematics

Info from CollegeBoards.com:
For the class of 2013, average scores are:
Critical reading:496
Mathematics: 514
Writing: 488

Texas high school students score considerably lower but I'm having trouble finding numbers for all (public and private) schools

The NCAA admits that almost 30 / 5,700 athletes in revenue sports were accepted in 2012 with scores -- below 700 on the SAT composite. A below 700 SAT would require a 2.8 or above GPA on sliding scale to pass NCAA Clearinghouse

[PonyKai]

I always thought they gave you 400 for signing your name.

[Stallion]

200 for half the test-this is only counting the harder half-critical reading

CORRECTION: I think you would be considered below the threshold with a score of below 400 in EITHER Critical Reading OR Writing. That's unfortunate-because a lot of schools don't even require a writing score and its not part of the NCAA sliding scale. I wished they had asked questions based on the NCAA standards and sliding scale. A kid could bomb writing but it wouldn't affect admissibility under NCAA requirements.