The Collegiate Athletic Arms Race: Origins and Implications of the "Rule 48" Controversy

Abstract

The passage of Rule 48 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) pro voked the most heated racial debate within the organization since the onset of widespread collegiate sports integration during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the core of the controversy are concerns over the legislation's anticipated financial and academic conse quences for those Division I institutions which have traditionally set less stringent academic standards for athletes' admissions and sports participation. Predominantly Black institu tions' efforts to establish and maintain parity with predominantly White institutions in the race to recruit "blue-chip" Black athletes is examined within the context of Rule 48's implica tions. The forces precipitating Rule 48 and those complicating its equitable implementation are shown to be rooted in the traditions and ongoing character of interracial relations in American sport and society. And, finally, problems of academic quality and integrity in collegiate sports are revealed to be only part of a much broader and potentially more devastating crisis afflicting education in America.