I've watched this thread, having nothing to contribute, until it got to the bottom of the thread pages. I have to ask...what about education majors? I couldn't believe that wasn't mentioned once in this thread. My son is interested in becoming a math teacher. As I watch the amount of teachers dwindle across every state, especially in the math and science areas, I have to say I think it is a great choice for him.
My son played 4 yrs at an ACC school. Of all of his teammates, I only recall one that was an education major. After 3 years of teaching, that guy is now working on getting onto the administration track because the teacher pay scale is so bad in South Carolina.
You're absolutely right, we certainly need more kids to go into education. But, that doesn't happen very often at Power 5 schools. However, from what I have seen it does seem a little more common at smaller D1 and D2 schools.
From what I have seen, the percentage of kids taking more demanding vs. less demanding majors fluctuates substantially. When my son played, 2009-2012, around half of the team majored in subjects like like business, construction science, health management, math, finance, etc. The other half were in the traditional athlete majors, parks & rec and communications. I just looked at the breakdown of the current roster. Things have changed considerably. Now, probably 90% of the kids are in less demanding majors. My guess is this is just cyclical, and will shift back to more of a 50-50 split in the coming years. But, I guess it could be reflective of the regime change that took place after son graduated.