ABSTRACT
Proposition 48 initiated an outcry from black university presidents, educators, and coaches and from the civil rights establishment. Partial qualifiers could receive an athletic scholarship but were not allowed to compete in their freshman year and would lose one year of varsity eligibility. That door was slammed shut in January, 1989. The discussion surrounding Proposition 48 seemed extremely one-sided. The arguments against the rule are far more extensive and consequential than those arguments for it. At the time of the rule's inception, approximately 43.5 percent of all senior student athletes participating in football and basketball at Division I institutions were graduating, but only 38 percent of black athletes were graduating. Establishing academic eligibility requirements for incoming freshmen student athletes would never resolve the serious problem of low graduation rates among college athletes. Most black college presidents and educators and the civil rights establishment feel Proposition 48 is not a fair rule.
