Study finds that large number of football players on top college teams have criminal records

Sports Illustrated and CBS finds that 7 percent of players on 2010 preseason Top 25 teams had been charged with or cited for a crime. Pittsburgh has had the most recent problems.

University of Pittsburgh

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's no bulletin that college football has an image problem.

Too many players' names show up not only in the boxscores, but on the police blotters, too.

Sports Illustrated and CBS combined their resources to find out the extent of the criminal component in college football. Specifically, they checked records of players on the top 25 teams in the 2010 pre-season rankings.

Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian write about the number of college football players with criminal records for Sports Illustrated's SI.com. They begin their lengthy report by detailing the recent law problems among players at the University of Pittsburgh.

Benedict and Keteyian write: 

An unprecedented six-month investigation by Sports Illustrated and CBS News found that Pittsburgh had more players in trouble with the law (22) than any other school among SI's 2010 preseason Top 25. The joint investigation involved conducting criminal background checks on every player -- 2,837 in all -- on the preseason rosters of those 25 teams. Players' names, dates of birth and other vital information were checked at 31 courthouses and through 25 law enforcement agencies in 17 states.

Among the findings, write Benedict and Keteyian: 

• Seven percent of the players in the preseason Top 25 -- 204 in all (1 of every 14) -- had been charged with or cited for a crime, including dozens of players with multiple arrests.

• Of the 277 incidents uncovered, nearly 40 percent involved serious offenses, including 56 violent crimes such as assault and battery (25 cases), domestic violence (6), aggravated assault (4), robbery (4) and sex offenses (3). In addition there were 41 charges for property crimes, including burglary and theft and larceny.

Ohio State was found to have seven players with police records, tied for the 11th-most among the 25 teams.

 

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2011/03/study_finds_that_large_number.html

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