When it comes to recruiting players and running games, few would dispute that those things fall squarely within a coach’s domain.
But when it comes to providing academic advice for student-athletes, coaches should think twice before they start telling their players what courses to take and which majors to pursue.
That’s the advice contained within a new study titled “Studying the Determinants of Student-Athlete Grade Point Average: The Roles of Identity, Context, and Academic Interests.”
Among other things, the study, which appeared recently in Social Science Quarterly, found that, when coaches discourage certain majors, it leads to a drop in a student-athlete’s GPA.
Giving wrong advice
Drilling down deeper, the study’s authors—economics professor Kurt J. Beron and criminology professor Alex R. Piquero, both of The University of Texas at Dallas—found that the lower GPA that resulted when coaches steered players away from certain majors only showed up for Division I males and Division II females.
“From a policy perspective, this suggests that academic advising by coaches, at least for two groups, may have a negative effect on academic achievement,” the study states.
