March Madness athletes major in business

The Wall Street Journalreports (subscription required) that NCAA basketball players participating in the big tournament are heading to the business school in droves.

According to the Journal, "The Count was able to identify the majors of 636 players who will be participating in this month's men's basketball tournament. Of them, 145 are studying business, economics, finance or variants thereof. Another 64 are studying sports management. . . Overall, there is an astonishing dearth of liberal arts majors. Only two athletes listed their majors as English and only nine chose history."

Overall the statistics aren't that surprising: Business is by far the most popular major in the United States and it has historically been popular among the hyper-competitive jock types.

But here's an interesting question that I ask at the risk of being accused of unfair stereotyping and sexism: Is the plethora of testosterone-fueled college athletes graduating from business schools and heading to Wall Street part of what got us into this mess? A focus on action instead of thought?

Perhaps we need more jocks in journalism and more poets trading mortgage-backed securities.