The Drake Group, a national organization of college faculty and others whose mission is to defend educational integrity in higher education from the corrosive aspects of commercialized college sports, applauds the ‘Intentional Discrimination’ class action lawsuit (“Manassa vs the NCAA”) recently filed in the Southern District of Indiana. This lawsuit alleges that the NCAA’s academic requirements, known as the Academic Performance Program, disproportionately penalize Black college athletes at historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A critical component of the mission of HBCU’s is to admit first-generation, non-traditional, low income, and/or at-risk students. HBCU’s are considered limited-resource institutions or schools in the bottom15 percent of all Division I member institutions in resources.
