Thu, Mar 17, 2005 page20

• NCAA officials out to boost graduation rate among players

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  If the NCAA's academic reform plan was in place for this year's men's basketball tournament, the 43 teams that graduated fewer than 50 percent of their players -- two-thirds of the field -- would risk penalties ranging from the loss of scholarships to being banned from postseason play.

  The graduation-rate statistics, compiled in a study released yesterday, are a reminder of the gap between the academic and athletic performances of the players on many of the basketball teams in the spotlight in March.

  Illinois and Washington, two of the four top-seeded men's teams, for example, graduated 47 and 45 percent of their players who entered the universities from 1994 to 1997 within six years. Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State graduated fewer than 20 percent during the same period.

  But this year, the statistics are a stern warning to athletic departments to raise their academic standards before the NCAA's Academic Progress Rating system takes effect during the 2005-6 academic year.

  "Until now, these figures could publicly embarrass an institution, but they did not change behavior," Myles Brand, president of the NCAA, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

  "Beyond the public pressure, the reforms under way carry real sanctions, and we intend to make schools accountable for the academic performance of the student-athletes they recruit. They need to recruit athletes capable of college level work, and graduate them."

  Bucknell and Utah State were the only universities in this year's tournament to have graduated within six years every one of their players who enrolled from 1994 to 1997. Pennsylvania was not included in the study because the Ivy League does not report graduation rates to the NCAA.

  "The story for men is a continuing nightmare that has spanned generations of student-athletes playing basketball," Richard Lapchick, the author of the report and the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, said in a telephone interview.

  "But for the first time ever, I am hopeful that the NCAA's plan to provide incentives for schools with high graduation rates and to impose penalties for schools that fall short of reasonable graduation rate goals will mean that institutions of higher education will deliver the promise of a meaningful education to all students."

  Seventeen teams, or 26 percent of the 65-team field, graduated 70 percent or more of their white players. Only 10 teams, or 15 percent, graduated 70 percent or more of their African-American players.

  Thirty-eight teams, or 58 percent, graduated 50 percent or more of their white players . Only 22 teams, or 34 percent, graduated 50 percent or more of their African-American players.

  Under the new NCAA rules, which apply to teams in every sport, teams will be judged in "real time" (semester to semester) and will be held to the 50 percent standard. But the study does not reflect the current graduation rate.

  Louisiana State is one of two tournament teams that have failed to graduate a single player in the time span analyzed, according to the study. But Skip Bertman, the LSU athletic director, said Tuesday that since coach John Brady took over before the 1997-1998 season, 11 players have graduated, and the team had a combined grade-point average of 3.06 and had placed four players on the Southeastern Conference's Academic Honor Roll.
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