Canadian Intercollegiate Sport Involvement: Clustering and Academic Achievement Revisited

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of intercollegiate sport involvement on academic clustering and academic attainment at a Canadian university. The results show that a high percentage of athletes in flagship sports (those with a full-time coach) are academically registered in one faculty. Academically, male flagship sport athletes underperformed in comparison to other students. The other male varsity athletes (those in lower profile sports) fared much better academically than both flagship sport athletes and non-athletes. Among females, both types of athlete were higher in academic attainment than non-athletes. Non-flagship sport athletes were superior academically on all three measures of attainment. Overall, our results for males indicate negative effects for flagship sport athletes and positive effects for other athletes. We suggest that the level of time commitment expected of flagship sport athletes is higher than for other athletes and might result in less time being available to devote to schoolwork.