EBS Academic Impact
Overview
A study of all 120 DI-A schools’ academic calendars was conducted for the 2006-07 academic year to quantify the academic impact the Enhanced Bowl Season Tournament would have on the academic performance of the student-athletes involved in the postseason. Scheduling first round bowl games near the Christmas holidays minimized conflicts with final exams, and while later rounds may fall near the beginning of classes after the break, the few number of teams involved in the semifinal and National Title games minimized the impact on the student-athletes. A comparison with the college baseball postseason, which coincides with the Spring final exam period, found that a similar number of student-athletes would be affected by the EBS as currently are in the baseball postseason.
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Details
A study of all the 2006-07 academic calendars for DI-A schools was conducted to study the impact of the EBS on student-athletes’ academic responsibilities. 2006 is a particularly bad year from a scheduling point of view as, with Christmas falling on a Monday, schools readily schedule final exams as late as Friday, December 22. Even so, the first EBS tournament game, which is held on Thursday, December 21, interferes with final exams at only 7% of schools. No universities were conducting class during any of the first round games. The Quarterfinal games were found not to interfere with any academic pursuit.
The semifinal and National Title games were found to conflict with approximately half of Division I-A schools. For the second semifinal on December 9, 44% of universities had started classes. The December 15 National Title Game would interfere with classes at 57% of universities; however, the small number of teams competing on these dates (four in the semifinals and two in the National Title Game) minimized the impact of the academic requirements of DI-A universities as a whole.
A probabilistic analysis of the data revealed that, on average, EBS tournament games would affect 38 student-athletes with regards to final exams and 174 student-athletes with respect to classes for a total of 212 student-athletes affected in a given year.
This compares favorably to the college baseball World Series. The baseball postseason, although having smaller teams sizes, qualifies many more teams (64 in the opening round). This, along the nearly constant number of schools conducting final exams over the four-week tournament (5% for the first round, 3% for the second, and 3% for the World Series) means that, on average, 98 student-athletes are affected by the baseball postseason each year. This is nearly three-times the number of student-athletes affected in the EBS. A further 140 students have their class schedules affected in the typical year, bringing the total number of students affected by the baseball postseason to 238.
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2006-07 Enhanced Bowl Season Tournament (Football)
| First | 8 | 60 | 0% | 8 teams × 60 S-As/team × 0% in classes = | 0 affected |
| Quarterfinals | 8 | 60 | 0% | 8 teams × 60 S-As/team × 0% in classes = | 0 affected |
| Semifinals | 4 | 60 | 44% | 4 teams × 60 S-As/team × 44% in classes = | 106 affected |
| National Title | 2 | 60 | 57% | 2 teams × 60 S-As/team × 57% in classes = | 68 affected |
| Total | 174 affected |
| First | 8 | 60 | 7% | 8 teams × 60 S-As/team × 7% in classes = | 34 affected |
| Quarterfinals | 8 | 60 | 1% | 8 teams × 60 S-As/team × 1% with exams = | 5 affected |
| Semifinals | 4 | 60 | 0% | 4 teams × 60 S-As/team × 0% with exams = | 0 affected |
| National Title | 2 | 60 | 0% | 2 teams × 60 S-As/team × 0% with exams = | 0 affected |
| Total | 38 affected |
2007 NCAA Men's College World Series (Baseball)
| First | 64 | 25 | 8% | 64 teams × 25 S-As/team × 8% in classes = | 128 affected |
| second | 16 | 25 | 3% | 16 teams × 25 S-As/team × 3% in classes = | 12 affected |
| World Series | 8 | 25 | 0% | 8 teams × 25 S-As/team × 0% in classes = | 0 affected |
| Total | 140 affected |
| First | 64 | 25 | 5% | 64 teams × 25 S-As/team × 5% in classes = | 80 affected |
| Second | 16 | 25 | 3% | 16 teams × 25 S-As/team × 3% with exams = | 12 affected |
| World Series | 8 | 25 | 3% | 8 teams × 25 S-As/team × 3% with exams = | 6 affected |
| Total | 98 affected |
Sport Comparison
| Football | 174 | 38 | 212 |
| Baseball | 140 | 98 | 238 |
Download the 2006-07 academic calendars of all D-I FBS Schools (pdf)
Note: While all 331 D-I schools may qualify for the baseball postseason, only the academic calendars of the 120 D-I FBS schools were examined. It is assumed that the trends observed in these schools are consistant with those of all D-I schools.
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