Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Overrepresented and Underscrutinized: How White Athletes Prevail in US College Athletic Recruitment and Admission

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Critical Whiteness

  • 40 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter applies Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) to review research on US higher education’s college athletic admission system. US college sports permit coaches to admit athletes as university students who may not have otherwise matriculated. Preferential athletic admission seems meritocratic because Black men – once barred from higher education and their sports teams – are now overrepresented in the prominent revenue-generating teams of American football and basketball. Scholars have characterized revenue-generating college athletics as a racially exploitative labor system. But the visibility of Black athletes disguises how White, middle-class athletes are overrepresented in all other sports. Applying CWS to diverse areas of literature including sociology of youth sports, critical race theories, sports management, physical education, and higher education access scholarship, I identify three mechanisms that permit the overrepresentation of White athletes to go unrecognized in athletics: racial segregation, preserving White advantage, and interpreting Whiteness. In doing so, this chapter opens new terrains for critiquing sport as meritocratic by (re)positioning Whiteness as a structuring force in athletic access and opportunity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allison R, Davis A, Barranco R (2018) A comparison of hometown socioeconomics and demographics for black and white elite football players in the US. Int Rev Sociol Sport 53:615–629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson E (2008) “I used to think women were weak”: orthodox masculinity, gender segregation, and sport. Sociol Forum 23:257–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ansley F (1988) Stirring the ashes: race class and the future of civil rights scholarship. Cornell Law Rev 74:993–1077

    Google Scholar 

  • Beamon K (2008) “Used goods”: former African-American college student-athletes’ perception of exploitation by division I universities. J Negro Educ 77:352–364

    Google Scholar 

  • Beamon K (2010) Are sports overemphasized in the socialization process of African American males? A qualitative analysis of former collegiate athletes’ perception of sport socialization. J Black Stud 41:281–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binder A, Davis D, Bloom N (2016) Career funneling: how elite students learn to define and desire “prestigious” jobs. Sociol Educ 89:20–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla-Silva E (2017) Racism without racists: color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States, 5th edn. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrington B (2013) The critical sociology of race and sport: the first fifty years. Annu Rev Sociol 39:379–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheslock, J (2008) Who’s playing college sports? Money, race and gender. Available via https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED539973. Women’s Sports Foundation. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • Coakley J (2015) Sport in society: issues and controversies, 11th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper J (2019) From exploitation back to empowerment: black male holistic (under)development through sport and (mis)education. Peter Lang, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M, Bengali, L (2014). Is it still worth going to college? Available via https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2014/may/is-college-worth-it-education-tuition-wages/. Federal Reserve Bank. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • DiAngelo R (2011) White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3:54–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckstein R (2017) How college athletics are hurting girls’ sports: the pay-to-play pipeline. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards H (1979) Sport within the veil: the triumphs, tragedies and challenges of afro-American involvement. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 445:116–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eitzen D (2016) Fair and foul: beyond the myths and paradoxes of sport, 5th edn. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferber A (2007) The construction of black masculinity: white supremacy now and then. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 31:11–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fields B (2001) Whiteness, racism, and identity, vol 60. International Labor and Working-Class History, pp 48–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Frederick E, Sanderson J, Schiereth N (2017) Kick these kids off the team and take away their scholarships: Facebook and perceptions of athlete activism at the University of Missouri. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics 10:17–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman H (2013) Playing to win: raising children in a competitive culture. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gillborn D (2005) Education policy as an act of white supremacy: whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. J Educ Policy 20:485–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guinier L (2015) The tyranny of the meritocracy: democratizing higher education in America. Beacon, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Gusa D (2010) White institutional presence: the impact of whiteness on campus climate. Harv Educ Rev 80:464–490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall S (1985) Signification, Representation, Ideology: Althusser and the Post-Structuralist Debates. Critical Studies in Media Communication 2:91–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038509360070.

  • Hanson S (2005) Hidden dragons: Asian American women and sport. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 29:279–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris C (1993) Whiteness as property. Harv Law Rev 106:1707–1791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haslerig S, Rican V, Grummert S (2018) Invincible bodies: American sport Media’s racialization of black and white college football players. Int Rev Sociol Sport 55:272–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins B (2013) The new plantation: black athletes, college sports, and predominantly white institutions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haycock K (2004) The elephant in the living room. Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004:229–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilig J, Darling-Hammond L (2008) Accountability Texas-style: the progress and learning of urban minority students in a high-stakes testing environment. Educ Eval Policy Anal 30:75–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2018) The hidden curriculum of college athlete recruitment. Harv Educ Rev 88:355–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2019a) Reproducing sports stars: how students become elite athletes. Teach Coll Rec 121:1–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2019b) Operation varsity blues: disguising the legal capital exchanges and white property interests in athletic admissions. Higher Education Politics & Economics 5:15–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2020a) Amateurism revisited: how US college athletic recruitment favors middle-class athletes. Sport Educ Soc 25:111–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2020b) Segregation, innocence, and protection: the institutional conditions that maintain whiteness in college sports. J Divers High Educ 13:384–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2020c) Bigger, faster, stronger: how racist and sexist ideologies persist in college sports. Gend Educ 32(8):1053–1071

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2021a) Special admission: how college sports recruitment favors white suburban athletes. Rutgers University, New Brunswick

    Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2021b) Producing athletes and centering whiteness: reexamining non-revenue generating collegiate athletic cultures. Journal of College and Character 22:114–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2021c) Socializing sport and socially constructing race: how academic exclusion and athletic inclusion draw black youth to sport. Journal of Contemporary Athletics 14:281–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K (2022) White property interests in college athletic admissions. J Sport Soc Issues 46:383–403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hextrum K, Sethi S (2021) Title IX at 50: legitimating state domination of women’s sport. Int Rev Sociol Sport. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902211037843

  • Hoffman J (2020) College sports and institutional values in competition: leadership challenges. Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hoynes H, Miller D, Schaller J (2012) Who suffers during recessions? J Econ Perspect 26:27–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jayakumar U, Comeaux E (2016) The cultural cover-up of college athletics: How organizational culture perpetuates an unrealistic and idealized balancing act. J of Higher Educ 77:488–515. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2016.0022

  • Jayakumar U, Page S (2021) Cultural capital and opportunities for exceptionalism: bias in university admissions. J High Educ 92:1109–1139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knoester M, Au W (2017) Standardized testing and school segregation: like tinder for fire? Race Ethn Educ 20:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurashige S (2008) The shifting grounds of race: black and Japanese Americans in the making of multiethnic Los Angeles. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapchick R (2020) The 2019 college sport racial and gender report card. Available via https://www.tidesport.org/racial-gender-report-card. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • Lawrence S, Harrison C, Bukstein S (2016) What is this “white” in the white male student-athlete?: white students’ perceptions of academic and athletic success on campus. Sociol Sport J 33:334–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard D (2017) Playing while white: privilege and power on and off the field. University of Washington, Seattle

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo Z (2004) The color of supremacy: beyond the discourse of “white privilege”. Educ Philos Theory 36:137–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo Z (2009) Race, whiteness, and education. Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo Z, Grubb W (2019) Education and racism: a primer on issues and dilemmas, 2nd edn. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo Z, Manning L (2017) White historical activity theory: toward a critical understanding of white zones of proximal development. Race Ethn Educ 20:15–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Love A, Gonzalez-Sobrino B, Hughey M (2017) Excessive celebration? The racialization of recruiting commitments on college football internet message boards. Sociol Sport J 34:235–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey D, Denton N (1998) American apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonough P (1997) Choosing college: how social class and schools structure opportunity. State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern J (2018) You Have to Have Money to Be Good: How Capital Accumulation Shapes Latinas Pathways to College Sports. J of Intercollegiate Sport 11:149–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills C (2003) From class to race: essays in white Marxism and black radicalism. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Messner M (2009) All for the kids: Gender, families, and youth sports. Berkeley: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) (2015). Finishing last: girls of color and school sports opportunities. Available via https://nwlc.org/press-releases/girls-color-are-not-getting-equal-chances-play-school-sports-nwlc-report-shows/ Accessed 13 December 2021

  • NCAA (2020) Estimated probability of competing in college athletics. Available via https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx Accessed 4 Oct 2022

    Google Scholar 

  • NCAA (n.d.) Emerging sports for women. Available via https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/emerging-sports-women. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • Nelson L (2008) Racialized landscapes: whiteness and the struggle over farmworker housing in Woodburn, Oregon. Cult Geogr 15:41–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omi M, Winant H (2014) Racial formation in the United States, 3rd edn. Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Orfield G, Frankenberg E (2013) Educational delusions? Why choice can deepen inequality and how to make schools fair. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Patton L (2016) Disrupting postsecondary prose: toward a critical race theory of higher education. Urban Educ 51:315–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center (2014) The rising cost of not going to college. Available via http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • Powell L, Slater S, Chaloupka F, Harper D (2006) Availability of physical activity – related facilities and neighborhood demographic and socioeconomic characteristics: a national study. Am J Public Health 96:1676–1680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Project Play. (2019). State of play: 2019. Available via https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/2019/10/2019_SOP_National_Final.pdf. Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program Report. Accessed 13 Dec 2021

  • Rothstein R (2017) The color of law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Runstedtler T (2018) More than just play: unmasking black child labor in the athletic industrial complex. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 42:152–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabo D, Veliz P (2008) Go out and play: youth sports in America. Women’s Sports Foundation, East Meadow

    Google Scholar 

  • Sack A, Staurowsky E (1998) College athletes for hire: the evolution and legacy of the NCAA’s amateur myth. Praeger, Westport

    Google Scholar 

  • Said E (1978) Orientalism. New York: Vintage

    Google Scholar 

  • Sethi S, Lever K, Hextrum K (2022) US citizenship supremacy: how immigration laws and NCAA policies exclude international college athletes from monetizing their name, image, and likeness. Sports Innovation Journal 3(SI):81–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shabazz R (2015) Spatializing blackness: architectures of confinement and black masculinity in Chicago. University of Illinois, Urbana

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shulman J, Bowen W (2001) The game of life: college sports and educational values. Princeton University

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens M (2009) Creating a class: college admissions and the education of elites. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuber J, Klugman J, Daniel C (2011) Gender, social class, and exclusion: collegiate peer cultures and social reproduction. Sociol Perspect 54:431–451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tompsett J, Knoester C (2021) The making of a college athlete: high school experiences, socioeconomic advantages, and the likelihood of playing college sports. Sociol Sport J 39:129–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Rheenen D (2012) Exploitation in college sports: race, revenue, and educational reward. Int Rev Sociol Sport 48:550–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weis L, Fine M (2012) Critical bifocality and circuits of privilege: expanding critical ethnographic theory and design. Harv Educ Rev 82:173–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weis L, Cipollone K, Jenkins H (2014) Class warfare: class, race, and college admissions in top-tier secondary schools. University of Chicago, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Young I (1990) Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Zdroik J, Veliz P (2016) The influence of pay-to-play fees on participation in interscholastic sports: a school-level analysis of Michigan’s public schools. J Phys Act Health 13:1317–1324

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Kirsten Hextrum

Authors
  1. Kirsten Hextrum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kirsten Hextrum .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jioji Ravulo

  2. School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Katarzyna Olcoń

  3. Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Tinashe Dune

  4. School of Health Sciences, Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Alex Workman

  5. College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Pranee Liamputtong

Section Editor information

  1. Translational Health Research Institute, Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Tinashe Dune

  2. Discipline of Psychological Sciences, Australian College of Applied Professions, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tinashe Dune

  3. Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Jioji Ravulo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Hextrum, K. (2023). Overrepresented and Underscrutinized: How White Athletes Prevail in US College Athletic Recruitment and Admission. In: Ravulo, J., Olcoń, K., Dune, T., Workman, A., Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Critical Whiteness. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1612-0_41-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1612-0_41-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-1612-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-1612-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation