Are D-III athletes struggling off the field?

It was a midseason practice about to come to an end. Coe College's first-team offense was running through some plays in preparation for its game three days later.

Up to Clark Field bounded Brad Boyle, the team's quarterback and Iowa Conference MVP. Teammates chided his extreme tardiness.

“Hey, Boyle, nice of you to show up,” one said, as the QB got in some quick warm-up tosses.

Practice concluded a few minutes later, without Boyle getting any work with the No. 1 offense. Blame it on an elongated biology lab.

“When kids pick our school,” Coe Athletics Director John Chandler said. “they know it's academics first, athletics second.”

That's the Division III philosophy. There are no athletics scholarships awarded at the 432 schools comprising the NCAA's largest classification.

Kids play strictly for the love of a sport. It's about studying, first and foremost.

At least it's supposed to be. The Associated Press reported in a recent story that research is indicating D-III athletes aren't performing as well in the classroom as their classmates in the general student body.

The story said the NCAA is considering tracking graduation rates and academic performance by athletes at its member Division III schools after seeing early results of an ongoing five-year study conducted by a group called the College Sports Project. CSP's study of student-athletes at 88 of D-III's more elite schools such as Amherst, Wesleyan and Cal Tech indicates male athletes ranking 6 to 9 percentile points lower than non-athletes.

“It is definitely true that intercollegiate athletes tend to have lower grades than non-athletes at college institutions,” CSP researcher John Emerson told the Associated Press. “The million-dollar question is ‘What's the reason for that kind of underperformance?'”

“Interesting,” Cornell Athletics Director John Cochrane said after reading the AP story. “I'll be curious to see results of the longer study when it's done. Division III likes to hold itself out there as having our priorities right, and I think we do.”

Both Chandler and Cochrane, former commissioner of the Iowa Conference, say they have few worries about student-athletes at their respective schools. They point out Coe and Cornell have strict admissions standards that are rigorously upheld, whether or not you are recruited for the football or basketball team.

Chandler said Coe has “looked internally” at the academic performance of its athletes and found they “do as well or better than the student body.” He pointed out studies show athletes perform better in the classroom when their respective sport is in season because of the added focus on time management.

“I think (the study) is nitpicking a little bit,” Chandler said. “You have to understand the schools we are talking about here. Kids who go to these schools are extremely, extremely intelligent ... That study is skewed, in my opinion.”

Both agree the topic is important, however. Division III schools cannot give up their ideals, no matter how much they crave victory.

“Division III suffers from some of the same pitfalls that any organization does,” Cochrane said. “When you're focused on winning and losing every day, you're going to have these types of ethical concerns. Oftentimes, people might end up doing something they would not do in order to win.

“Believe it or not, Division III schools don't want to win any less than Division I schools.”