Minding the Terrazzo Gap between Athletes and Nonathletes: Representativeness, Integration, and Academic Performance at the U.S. Air Force Academy

Authors

Brian C. Payne, US Air Force AcademyFollow
Jeffery S. Bredthauer, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
John A. Martin, US Air Force Academy
Jeffrey C. Merrell, US Air Force Academy

Date of this Version

2016

Citation

Journal of Sports Economics 2016, Vol. 17(3) 302-320

Comments

© The Author(s) 2014

DOI: 10.1177/1527002514530406

Abstract

The tension between focusing on collegiate athletic or academic performance has persisted for decades. A recent study finds that recruited athletes in college athletic programs underperform academically, earning lower grades than predicted. It postulates that increased representativeness and integration efforts will enhance the academic value of college athletes’ experience. The U.S. Air Force Academy system presents a natural experiment of whether such efforts can affect student-athlete academic performance. In this setting, we find that student-athletes perform comparably to nonathletes after controlling for predicted academic performance.