An undergraduate degree is critical to a student-athlete's transition into life after sports; however, Black male student-athletes are not seizing the opportunities associated with college graduation. Black male student athletes' graduation rates are consistently and substantially lower than those of their White male student-athlete counterparts. Within athletic departments, academic support and career development units (ASCDUs) are responsible for helping academically underprepared student-athletes or those who experience difficulty managing their academics. The rationale for the current study derived from the actuality that very little is known about the effectiveness of student-athlete academic support programs (SASSPs). The intensive learning program (ILP) was designed to provide structured assistance to academically at-risk student-athletes in the form of content tutoring, academic skills development, and counseling. The field of social work has identified counseling strategies for Black males, including transcendent counseling, a program designed to help Black males view counseling as a helping tool instead of a signal of weakness. Evidence-based practices that include social work ideologies hold the potential to further enhance the effectiveness of academic support programs by addressing issues typically targeted by the social work profession. Results of this study indicate that successful ILPs and SASSPs benefit athletic departments and universities. Foremost, ILPs and SASSPs help increase the overall graduation rates and retention of Black male students. Second, student development personnel, administrators, and faculty can draw from the lessons learned by ILPs and SASSPs to inform their work with Black male nonathletes. Some of the same factors that lead to low retention of Black male students, such as isolation and disengagement, affect Black male student-athletes (S. R. Harper, 2009). An increasing number of athletic departments are under the supervision of a university's chief academic officer or the student affairs department, which provides an opportunity for other campus systems to influence student athlete development.