SI/CBS News: College Football and Crime

Looks like you win the speed typing award.

iowa and wisconsin both surprised me for being so high, and oregon and florida seemed a little lower than i thought

The big 10 holding strong with 4 of the top 11 spots with most players charged impressive.. lol what a joke

Looks like we are kicking the SEC's ass in players charged...

Wait, so is this the big bombshell that was supposed to drop on a certain Big Time College Football Program?

Last night the claim on the internet was that SI was supposed to drop the big story today.

Is this it or was that simply two stories getting crossed on the interwebs?

Because I have to say that this will not end up being a big deal at all for any program. At least I doubt it. 

Well, I guess if ever there's a reason to be happy Michigan is not in SI's Top 25, this would be it.

Did I miss something - Where is Michigan State on the list?

here.  In essence (these are all quotes from the Dr Sat article):

• 7 percent of players on teams ranked in SI's 2010 preseason top 25 had some kind of criminal record in their past
• About 3.5 percent of college students have a criminal record
• Based on 2000 Census data, about 6.6 percent of the population will serve prison time at some point in their lifetime. That number jumps significantly (to somewhere between 9 percent and 11 percent) for males, higher than the rate in the SI/CBS study. About 4.4 percent of the population was arrested for some kind of crime in 2009.
• That's without an attempt to take into account the much higher arrest and incarceration rates for young, black males – 1 in 9 black males between ages 20 and 34 was incarcerated in 2008 – who are significantly overrepresented (compared to the population at large) in the SI/CBS study. Do with the numbers what you will, but do it with all the numbers. 

from slowstates.com:

"According to the statistics given (and remember, this inexplicably only includes a sample size of the Sports Illustrated Preseason top 25), seven percent of players have been charged with or cited for a crime. Of those seven percent, “nearly 60 percent…were guilty or paid some penalty”. If we assume “nearly 60 percent” means 57% (shockingly, the actual numbers and survey methods aren’t given), then 4% of players on top 25 football teams have been actually convicted of, or plead guilty to, a crime.

The number of average college students with the same criminal record?According to this article from Corvallis, Oregon’s Daily Barometer, 3.45%. That’s right: Your typical college football player is one-half of one percent more likely to have a criminal conviction. To put that in perspective, a team of 85 players has half a person more convicted criminals on it than a sample of 85 students drawn randomly. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife."

After I read Spencer Hall's takedown, I had to go check the SI article itself to see if Michael Rosenberg had written it since he's now at SI.  But it just looks like he has spread his brand of "investigative" journalism to the other writers at SI. The methods are shockingly similar.

The big story isn't supposed to drop until closer to summer. I don't think this is it.

Race was not a major factor. In the overall sample, 48 percent of the players were black and 44.5 percent were white. Sixty percent of the players with a criminal history were black and 38 percent were white.

Somebody wanna calculate a p value on that one?

When juvenile court determines that a kid has been adequately punished for his transgressions, it isn't the school's duty to punish him further by not allowing him to play sports.  I think the more important number is the number of players who commit crimes while they are in school or on the team.  

I think almost any kid deserves a chance to succeed in college.  I think a kid with a troubled background should get a chance to play under a "zero tolerance" policy, just as a so-called "good kid" should.  

If a player commits a felony or violent misdemeanor while representing the school, though, that player should be kicked off of the team.  I would possibly make an exception to a one-on-one fight with both participants consenting, but there's a big difference between a teenager making a mistake out of ignorance or because of the culture of his environment and a player on scholarship committing a crime while representing the university.

It seems like SI thinks these kids should be held to a higher standard simply because we choose to pay attention to their athletic ability.

Can't we make a single top 25 list?! 

Just kidding...

But seriously...

Were robbing houses together (allegedly...I think).  This is the same mess that Demar was involved in that fueled the Freep's jihad against him.

"Taking that same view, Wisconsin's Bret Bielema signed linebacker Kevin Claxton even though Claxton had been convicted in conjunction with a home burglary in November 2007. When he was 18, Claxton drove the getaway car after a small group of teenagers broke into a home near Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. He was a prized recruit at Boyd Anderson High at the time of his arrest, but his dream of playing in college seemed dashed after he was charged with felony burglary."

A certain former Michigan football coach was regarded by many in the media as running some sort of thug program, yet Michigan doesn't show up on the list of the programs with players in trouble. However, the teams of such well-respected and highly-regarded coaches as Kirk Ferentz, Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel, and Bret Beilema are there. Imagine that.