Brainstorming for Hoop Dreams Essay:

If UNC Chapel Hill, one of the country's premier public universities, has at least 10 percent of their football and basketball players reading at only an elementary school level, how bad is it at lesser schools, or rather schools with not as elite an academic reputation as UNC Chapel Hill.  Would Arthur and William fall into this trap or excel past the minimal academic expectations for Division I athletes, especially in basketball and football.  I ultimately think they would, because they have been somehwat "pampered" in terms of academic expectations.  Arthur leaves St. Joseph because his family cannot afford tuition, but I think he would have ultimately left because he could not keep up with his "rigorous" academic schedule and expectations.  

Because schools like UNC and Berkeley accept players who are above par athletically, but not on par academically, they are not filling the school with student-athletes, but rather just athletes.  Because of this, student athletes who excel in the classroom, but only to a certain extent on the field/court/pool, etc., are moving down to play in Division III of the NCAA.  Now, certain D3 schools in tennis can actually beat some D1 schools, because some players recognize that they would not receive the best education at certain D1 schools.

Maintaing  college football and basketball players' GPAs has been a tremendous difficult for powerhouse football programs such as Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas, and powerhouse basketball programs such as Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Kansas.

This is mostly the sad reality for the majority of the best of the best teams in D1.  The players are threatened to lose their scholarships if they do not meet the coach's playing standards, but most do not have to worry about the consequences of literal academic failure, as most coaches do not care about the student aspect of the term student-athlete.