Graduate(d) Student Athletes in Division I Football: Redefining Archetypes and Disrupting Stereotypes or Invisible?

Abstract

This article foregrounds the experiences of graduate(d) student athletes, defined as college athletes who earn a bachelor’s degree before exhausting their athletic eligibility and take postbaccalaureate or graduate coursework. Findings from semistructured phone interviews with 11 graduate(d) student athletes in Division I football suggest participants are able to marshal their academic credentials to negotiate stereotypes. Examining how simultaneously being a graduate(d) student and a football player impacted participants’ vulnerability to stereotyping, I find that despite the ability to disrupt stereotypes, obstacles both systemic and individual may inhibit this effect. In particular, I explore the themes: stereotyping, disrupting/disproving stereotyping, trailblazer/role model, and invisibility. I also attend to the factors contributing to this subpopulation of college athletes’ continued invisibility and offer implications and suggestions for practice.

Lessons From Graduate(d) Student Athletes: Supporting Academic Autonomy and Achievement

“…This lens may reveal connections between theory, graduate(d) student athletes’ success, and applied solutions to the all‐too‐common academic struggles and failures of college athletes, especially those in revenue sports. I draw on the implications of my own previous research on graduate(d) student athletes in this section of the chapter in order to describe lessons from the experiences of this subpopulation (Haslerig, , ; Haslerig & Navarro, ). Themes discussed include academic monitoring and support, earned academic autonomy, and distancing from support services.…”

“…A rigorous, iterative coding process was followed (Glaser, ; Miles & Huberman, ) which enabled confidence in both the richness and the thickness of the data. More information on the method, sample, and data analysis can be found in previously published research (Haslerig, , ).…”

Who or What Are Graduate(d) Student-Athletes?: Defining a Misunderstood Sub-population

“…The graduate(d) student athlete population is, by definition, a beneficiary of the credential owed in a good faith exchange between universities and athletes (Haslerig, 2017). Given the potential exploitation of college athletes, more than just a credential may be owed, however.…”

“…Due to clustering into majors with dubious academic value and/or little applicability to athletes' future goals (Fountain & Finley, 2009Houston & Baber, 2017), "a degree may not constitute an accurate measure of whether student-athletes have obtained educational skills that will permit them to compete and earn a living" (Davis, 1991, p. 758). Thus, it is essential and ethical that student athletes have the opportunity to leave college both with the skills, knowledge, and intellectual development signified by a college degree, and with the actual credential (Davis, 1991;Haslerig, 2013Haslerig, , 2017. The opportunity to earn a graduate degree may be a particularly effective way to accomplish the goal of a meaningful education (Haslerig & Navarro, 2016).…”

“…Harrison, Lawrence, Bukstein, Janson, and Woodle (2010) called on researchers to "investigate scholar-athletes that project new paradigms, discourses, and representations about successfully balancing academics and athletics" (p. 239). In that spirit, I draw on the broad implications of my own previous research on graduate(d) student athletes in this note in order to situate this subpopulation in relation to larger debates regarding student athlete achievement (Haslerig, 2013(Haslerig, , 2017Haslerig & Navarro, 2016). Although some may not see the need for studying graduate(d) student athletes because they are ostensibly academically proficient, I argue that we must resist the impulse to approach research as triage.…”