Race-based preferences during college admissions are gone, jettisoned by the Supreme Court. Now universities are under pressure to drop favorable treatment for donors and children of alumni. But what about recruited athletes, whose admission advantage far outstrips any of the above categories of student? At Harvard, for instance, the chances of getting in move from less than 1% to 86% if coveted by a coach.

Can special admissions for recruited athletes be preserved? Should they? Our panels explore the societal implications of preferred treatment of athletes, from the contributions they make to campus life to the downstream reshaping of the youth sports industry, and considers: What treatment makes sense now?

Join the Aspen Institute Sports & Society for this virtual discussion. Speakers include:

• Kirsten Hextrum, Oregon State University assistant professor, author of “Special Admission: How College Sports Recruitment Favors White Suburban Athletes”

• Tyler Ransom, University of Oklahoma associate professor, co-author of study of athlete admissions at Harvard cited in SCOTUS decision on race-based admissions

• Linda Flanagan, author of Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports – and Why It Matters

• Ramogi Huma, National College Players Association executive director, former UCLA football player

• Richard Southall, College Sports Research Institute director, University of South Carolina

• Jon Solomon, Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program editorial director (moderator)

• Tom Farrey, Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program executive director (moderator)