Despite divisions over many issues in college sports, Americans showed overwhelming consensus on maintaining academic standards for college athletes. This educational emphasis crossed all demographic and interest groups:

  • 81% said it was extremely or very important for college athletes to be enrolled as full-time students taking classes at their institution
    • At least 85% of college sports fans and “former college athletes and their families” agreed
  • 81% viewed athlete graduation as extremely or very important
  • 74% strongly supported the existing rule requiring teams to be on track to graduate at least half their athletes to remain eligible for postseason competition

 

(*See methodology page for comparison group sizes)

Text-only screen reader version of all charts in this report