Admission into many colleges and universities is more competitive today than it has ever been before. Not surprisingly then, the topic of special admission students has been a hotly contested one. Special admission students are those who have poorer academic credentials than do their counterparts, but who are admitted to the institution on the basis of some sort of special talent or ability that they possess or produce, which, to some degree, is expected to contribute to the overall growth, diversity, and prosperity of the university. In many cases, athletic ability represents said talent, but musicians, artists, and others also sometimes receive special admission into the university. Despite the practice of specially admitting some students into the university, examination into people's attitudes toward such practice has largely been ignored. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to examine the attitudes toward special admission students, and in particular, athletes, as well as the behavioral manifestations of those attitudes. In Study 1, 44 students were asked about their attitudes toward special admission practices in general, and toward specially admitting athletes in particular. Their qualitative responses were transcribed, and two analysts coded and agreed upon the themes. Students expressed positive evaluations toward admitting athletes on a special basis, attitudes most often held because of the benefit to the university. When opposition did arise (which occurred less frequently), students expressed consternation with the lower academic records of the athletes and the unfair nature of admitting them on a special basis. In Study 2, quantitative data were collected from 113 students. A series of paired-sample t-tests, using Bonferroni correction, revealed that students expressed the most positive attitudes toward admitting athletes to the university, as opposed to granting special admission to musicians, artists, or ROTC members. Interestingly however, relative to the other groups, students were least willing to work with athletes on class projects, thought athletes would perform the poorest in their class, and believed that athletes had the lowest commitment to academic pursuits. The results from both studies reveal an interesting dichotomy. Students were in favor of admitting athletes on a special basis if the athlete could improve the university, seemingly through the increased performance of the athletic team. Despite these viewpoints, the students had negative evaluations of athletes as students and reported treating them differently than their counterparts. Work is needed, then, to decrease these potentially harmful differences. Keyword(s): college level issues, sport management