Ideology of Athletic Merit
Transmission of Privilege in College Athlete Admissions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2363747 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kirsten Hextrum (0000-0002-1683-6609, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 565-584 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0731-1214 • E-ISSN: 1533-8673 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/07311214221134807 |
| OpenAlex | W4311642825 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 20 |
Researchers critique athletic admissions, claiming that lower academic standards for athletes lead to disengagement, retention issues, and mission-drift. Yet few studies scrutinize the athletic standards utilized. Despite the concentration of Black men in football and basketball, overall, white and middle-class athletes receive the greatest admission advantages suggesting athletic merit aligns with privilege. Drawing on 47 life-history interviews with Division I college athletes from one elite university, I apply Althusserian ideology to examine how exceptionally admitted participants interpret and (re)enact their advantages. Narratives revealed the institutional conditions, rituals, and practices that link athleticism to college access. Across three themes-access, ascendance, and admission-I consider how athletes are interpellated into meritorious recipients of preferential treatment, obscuring the structural alignments undergirding university access
Athletes · Basketball · College athletics · College football · Disengagement theory · Elite · Elite Athletes · Football · Ideology · Narrative · Physical therapy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sport Psychology and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society · Gerontology
The Hidden Worries of Inequality
Contextual Factors and Test-Disclosure Decisions under Test-Optional Policies
Beyond the Game
Expanding Opportunities or Perpetuating Inequity? Assessing the Impact of New Women’s Sports Teams on Title IX Compliance and Diversity in NCAA Athletics
College overmatch
Athletes without Athletics
Inequalities in Girls’ High School Sports Participation
Sport in society
Class Warfare
Negotiating Opportunities
Signification, representation, ideology
Segregation, innocence, and protection
Bigger, faster, stronger
Middle-Class Social Reproduction
Lived experience and the ideologies of preservice social studies teachers
The Making of a College Athlete
The Chosen
Cultural Capital and Opportunities for Exceptionalism
The Tyranny of Meritocracy
Pay for Play
Cultural Knowledge and Social Inequality
Youth Sports
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |