College Questions Validity of NESCAC Report Data

Author: Claire Bourne News Editor

Data revealed by William Bowen and James Schulman in their recent study on athletics and academics at New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) member schools has called into question admissions policies as well as student-athletes' academic performance once enrolled.

The method by which the report's authors determined that recruited athletes enjoy a higher acceptance rate than the general applicant pool and that they tend to perform less well than their non-athlete counterparts in the classroom has not gone unchallenged.

Special Adviser to the Director of Athletics Michael Heinecken, who coached football at Middlebury College for 28 years, said that the report "seemed to have had a specific agenda to look solely at the negatives."

The study, said Director of Admissions John Hanson, "appears to superimpose a quite narrow and highly homogeneous mission of its own upon … member institutions" even though each NESCAC school's mission statement, particularly as it applies to admissions, is different.

Middlebury's Office of Admissions uses both the College's mission statement and other official relevant statements in College publications to guide its admission decisions, Hanson said.

The mission statement affirms, "Middlebury wants those who will give freely of themselves in academic study, in the arts, in pursuit of leadership, in athletics and in social service." The Bowen and Schulman report addresses the athletic element of these characteristics deemed desirable in an applicant.

Until Middlebury has assessed its own data regarding the admission of student-athletes and their subsequent academic performance, no one can say for sure to what extent the report's findings are relevant to the College.

Most administrators, including President John McCardell and Director of Athletics Russ Reilly, regard the study as a jumping-off point for healthy discussion about the role of athletics at this highly competitive liberal arts institution.



The SAT I Problem



Hanson cited the "heavy reliance on the SAT I as a predictor of academic achievement" as one of the report's greatest weaknesses, given that several NESCAC schools, including Middlebury, no longer require applicants to submit SAT I scores.

He added that research conducted by the College Board, the national organization under which the SATs are administered, has revealed a .36 correlation with first-year grades (on a scale where one indicates a perfect correlation).

According to Hanson, students selected for Phi Beta Kappa at Middlebury, as well as those who fail out for inadequate grades, "have SAT I scores falling in all 10 of the deciles represented in the student body."

To remedy this inconsistency, Hanson said admissions officers pay particular attention to an applicant's grade point average, rank-in-class, course selection, essays and teacher recommendations.

He commented that the SAT II subject tests and the ACT are more effective indicators of student achievement than the SAT I and that the Admissions Office has "developed considerably more confidence" in these standardized tests in the last few years.

Questioning the validity of the report's findings, Heinecken seconded Hanson's discontent with Bowen and Schulman's dependence on SAT I scores to generate statistics. "If you use the College Board scores, the statistics thrown out are not very flattering to athletes," he remarked.

Heinecken went on to say that he found it "strange" that these scores would be so "dominant" in both "The Game of Life" and the ensuing NESCAC report, "given the movement away from [requiring that information for admittance]."

In their study, Bowen and Schulman placed significant emphasis on the SAT gap between students at large and high profile recruited athletes – men recruited to play football, ice hockey and basketball – while only briefly addressing the high rate at which athletes graduate from NESCAC institutions. Heinecken said he viewed this disparity as one of the report's shortcomings.



The Truth About Recruiting



Not only do high profile recruited athletes at NESCAC colleges score lower on the SATs than their low profile and non-athlete counterparts, but they also enjoy, on average, a two out of three chance of being accepted by NESCAC institutions, Bowen and Schulman revealed. The acceptance rate for the general applicant pool stands at 33 percent.

Since the release of "The Game of Life" last year and the NESCAC report in September, confusion has been expressed over the exact meaning of "recruitment" at NESCAC schools.

The ambiguity of the term, explained Heinecken, stems from the lack of a single concrete definition. "Recruiting conjures up a lot of images," he maintained.

At larger universities, for example, coaches are permitted to travel from high school to high school scouting for talented athletes. In contrast, NESCAC prohibits coaching staff at its member schools to recruit off campus. Coaches are allowed to contact student-athletes and high school coaches by post, e-mail or telephone or to speak with prospective student-athletes during their visits to campus.

Heinecken also called attention to the increasing number of high school students who contact the athletic department expressing interest in playing a specific sport at the College.

"Some sports have become so successful that the coaches don't have to be that aggressive because kids and high school coaches contact them first," he said.

Even so, recruiting, as defined by NESCAC, "does occur" at the College, Heinecken affirmed.

He noted "an aggressive approach by most coaches to encourage students to look at all the benefits of Middlebury, including the strengths of its athletic program."

Hanson explained, "When an admissions officer evaluating an application deems the applicant to be admissible, the coach [of the] sport [in which the student expresses interest] is asked to rate the student-athlete on a one to 10 basis, to help us assess the contribution that applicant might make to that program." He added that coaches often approach the Admissions Office with names of applicants "whose athletic talent[s] would be welcome."

Regardless of coaches' rankings, the admissions staff applies what Hanson refers to as "the broken leg test" to each applicant. "Before admitting a student-athlete, we ask the question, 'If he or she breaks a leg during the first week at Middlebury and never plays a game here, are we still going to be glad he or she is a member of the class?'" he explained. "Similarly, from the student's point of view, is Middlebury still going to be a good place for the student? If the answer to either question is no, we do not offer admission."

Hanson defined recruited athletes as "those applicants who had a coach's rating on their folder at the time [of] the decision … to admit, waitlist or deny the application."

Because the ratings are placed on folders of applicants that "either an admissions officer or a coach [have] deemed admissible," the acceptance rate for these candidates "is guaranteed to be higher than would otherwise have been the case," he elucidated.

"We would like to have the best student-athletes we can find," Heinecken said. For this reason, during his 28 years as a football coach, he always submitted a "fairly large list" of rated student-athletes to the Admissions Office for consideration.

He stressed, however, that the admissions staff always made the final decision on whether or not to admit a candidate.

"I would like to have everyone [ranked on the higher end of the scale] admitted, but the class ends up having a range of athletic ability from high to low because we need to meet [academic] standards," he clarified
.

"The burden falls on the coach in 'recruiting' to find students who fit the criteria the Admissions Office is looking for. Yes, I would think it makes a difference if we need a quarterback," he continued. "If a coach puts a 10 down, which doesn't happen very often, then the coach is obviously communicating that this is a superior athlete."

Heinecken pointed out that recruiting at Middlebury started well before his arrival at the College in 1973.

Since then, the process has become far more organized and, in his opinion, has, along with Title Nine, helped expand the women's athletic program, not only at Middlebury but also in NESCAC and beyond.

He explained, "There are now more coaches involved in wanting to field as strong a team as they can, and they're going to take advantage of all the rules that exist in the league."