Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 were used to evaluate the contention that big-time college sports exploit athletes, denying them an education that will help them succeed after college. The sample (N=8,101) consisted of six comparison groups of students who attended four year colleges: varsity football and basketball players; varsity athletes in other sports; intramural sports participants; performing arts students; nonathletes; and a residual group who claimed to be active in athletics, identified by transcript entries for "varsity" or "intercollegiate" sports, whether the entries carried credits or not. Major findings of the study include the following: (1) varsity athletes, including football and basketball players complete the bachelor's degree at a reasonable rate, but it takes them longer to do so than other groups, their grades are lower, and their curricula are less demanding; (2) ex-varsity football and basketball players do very well economically in the first decade of their worklives, whether or not they earned college degrees; and (3) at age 32, they had the highest rate of home ownership, the lowest rate of unemployment, but were the most likely to have lower status occupations than other groups. Results suggest that colleges do not exploit athletes but that the near term educational promises colleges make to students are not being kept. Includes 19 references and 17 tables. (LPT)