Who or What Are Graduate(d) Student-Athletes?: Defining a Misunderstood Sub-Population

After reading Columbus Dispatch’s cover story “Battle of Brothers” about the upcoming collegiate football game in which my two youngest cousins—who are brothers—would face each other, I was annoyed. The article used the term “fifth year senior” to describe the elder brother, which struck me because it was juxtaposed with a description of his younger brother as a “third-year junior”—not only making a fifth year seem aberrant, but also transforming a purely athletic achievement (playing as a freshman) into a disingenuous testament to his academic progress. Yet, as a collegiate athlete under the purview of the NCAA, the elder brother was a “fifth-year senior” in his final year of eligibility despite having walked at graduation the year before, completing an internship, and starting coursework toward a graduate degree.