Texas high school football players, the main...

Texas high school football players, the main target of the state’s no-pass, no-play eligibility rule, were far more successful in the classroom than their non-playing counterparts during the first six-week grading period, according to a survey of 26 Texas school districts.

Among 140 high schools in 26 districts surveyed by United Press International and Texas Football magazine, 20.3% of varsity and junior varsity football players--4,069 of 20,063--failed one or more classes during the first six weeks.

For the general high school population of those 140 schools, the failure rate was 38.6%--89,130 of 230,720, the survey indicated. When football players were removed from the totals, the failure rate for non-players was 40.3%--virtually double that of football players only.