Do College Athletics Corrupt?

SHARON STOLL had been a physical-education professor at Idaho for six years back in 1986 when one of her students asked her a simple question: "Do you think athletes are as morally developed as the normal population?"

"Of course!" replied Stoll, a former gymnast and high school coach. "We build character." But after a summer spent studying moral development, she changed her mind. When faced with a moral issue, she hypothesized, athletes respond differently from nonathletes. Then she set out to prove her hypothesis.

In a 20-year study of nearly 80,000 college, professional and high school athletes, Stoll found that she was right: Athletes score worse on tests of moral reasoning. In fact, from the moment athletes enter big-time sports, their moral reasoning never improves and usually declines. Athletes tested as high school freshmen rarely score higher when tested at the end of college. Worse still, the culture corrupts with staggering haste. While female athletes traditionally have graded higher than males, their scores have plummeted over the last decade and will likely converge with those of male athletes in five years.

"In America we have a tendency when we do something nasty to say, 'I'm just competitive,'" says Stoll. "And in sports, gaining an advantage is what we do. But gaining that advantage has become an excuse to do what is morally wrong."

Stoll and her research team give athletes surveys that present sports scenarios, each containing a proposition. Respondents are asked whether they "strongly agree," "agree," are "neutral" about, "disagree" or "strongly disagree" with the proposition. One example: During a volleyball game, player A hits the ball over the net. The ball barely grazes off player B's fingers and lands out-of-bounds. However, the referee does not see player B touch the ball. Because the referee is responsible for calling rule violations, player B is not obligated to report the violation. At an increasing rate, athletes are answering, "strongly agree." In other words, winning is more important than fair play.

Asked if her findings help explain the increase in off-the-field problems involving college athletes over the last 25 years, Stoll is hesitant, saying, "It's a logical jump to make, [but] we just don't have the data to support it." Her data, however, are clear on other points. Athletes from team sports--especially male contact sports such as football, basketball and lacrosse--score lower than those from individual sports. Athletes from revenue-producing sports score the lowest.

To help colleges address the problem, Stoll has developed an educational program in conjunction with Winning with Character, a Marietta, Ga.--based nonprofit. Georgia and Maryland are among the universities that hold weekly group discussions with athletes about sex, drugs, alcohol, gun possession and other topics based on Stoll's curriculum.

"Schools and coaches have to see the need," says Stoll. "We spend a lot of money developing athletes' motor skills but nothing on developing their cultural or moral skills."