Ideology of Athletic Merit: Transmission of Privilege in College Athlete Admissions

Abstract

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.