The University of Tennessee Faculty Senate published a study relating the grades of students to their gender, year, and if they are athletes or not.  Females at the university had a higher overall mean GPA of 2.93 compare to the overall mean GPA of men at 2.68.  They also found that non-athletes have a higher mean GPA than athletes, a 2.81 compared to a 2.70.  This difference has been attributed to men’s participation in football and basketball.  These two had means of 2.32 and 2.20, respectively.  However, not counting seniors, they found that athletes have a higher overall mean GPA than non-athletes.  Female athletes were found to have a higher mean GPA than male athletes, 3.04 compared to 2.47.  http://web.utk.edu/~senate/AthRpt4-01.html

            A similar study to ours was performed at the University of St. Francis by students in the Statistics class.  In comparing their golf teams, women had a higher GPA of 3.33 compared to a 2.96 for the men’s team.  In soccer, the women’s team also has the edge with a 2.88 compared to a 2.62.  The softball team has a mean of 3.09 compared to the baseball team’s 2.94.  Tennis is the only sport that men have a higher GPA than women, with a 3.3 compared to a 3.09.  Athletes as a group took a hit in the overall with a 2.88 compared to a mean GPA of 3.11 for non-athletes.  The students found that female athletes had far better GPA’s, on average, than male athletes.

http://www.stfrancis.edu/srsymposium/projects/swrk/mascio_etal_swrk.pdf

            Kasandra J. Hildenbrand, in order to become a doctor of philosophy, conducted a study relating how high profiled a sport is compared to the mean graduating GPA of each student.  She was checking to see if higher profile sports have a better or worse GPA than lower profile sports.  An interesting trend emerged.  She sampled multiple colleges, and found that higher profile sports have better mean GPA’s.  She attributed this partially to the public pressure received by these students to do well in the class room while lower profile students are allowed to slide through with little attention paid.  Although she did not address male or female, she did bring up a possible problem with any study.  There is no way to address public pressure on males versus females and it may have a significant effect on academic performance.

http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/2097/138/1/KaseeHildenbrand2005.pdf