<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- A new study says 42 of the 65 teams playing in the men's NCAA tournament graduated less than 50 percent of their players. The graduation rate statistics, compiled in a study released Tuesday by the University of Central Florida, also found that women's teams in the NCAA tournament continue to graduate players at a much higher level. The numbers are based on athletes who entered the universities from 1994 to 1997 and were or were not able to graduate in six years. If the NCAA's new academic reform plan was in place, the teams with less than 50 percent graduation rates would face penalties that include loss of scholarships and a ban on postseason play. The NCAA has said penalties won't be issued until 2004-05 graduation data is included, which will happen in the 2005-06 academic year. ``Regarding graduation rates for women, we can cut down the nets in celebration. As for men's graduation rates, especially for African-American student-athletes, the dance has barely begun,'' said Richard Lapchick, director of UCF's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The study also found an increasing disparity between the graduation rates of white and black student-athletes on NCAA tournament teams. Two men's team, LSU and Minnesota, failed to graduate even one basketball player, according to numbers supplied by the 2004 NCAA Graduation Rates Report. Two No. 1 seeds -- Illinois (47 percent) and Washington (45 percent) -- graduated less than half its players. Bucknell and Utah State both graduated 100 percent, but only four other schools topped 70 percent. Numbers looked much better for women's teams, where only six schools in the 64-team field failed to graduate at least 50 percent, while 35 graduated at least 70 percent. Eight schools graduated at least 90 percent with Holy Cross, Vanderbilt and Montana registering 100 percent. All four of the top-seeded women's team graduated at least 53 percent. </div> Source
I don't see the big problem here. Basketball teams only have 12-15 players, and they're not exactly rocket scientists. They're on scholarships for basketball, not academic purposes. Although we'd like them to be great students, who are we kidding? Every team's going to have five or six guys who just don't get it. Plus, you have to consider the kids that leave early.
They do these type of studies ever year at the same exact time right at the start of the tourny, in the Jim Baehim even John Thompson when he was at Goergetown was called out for the lack of graduation rate of the players at their programs. But like Voodoo said I dont know why they continue to release these studies like they are surpose to shock us. College sports basketball & football in particular are all about making money, the rule of student athletes is gone. If you think about what are the two major winter sporting events in this country besides the Superbowl, it has to be the Bowl series in College football. And then March Madness in College basketball, so education gets lost in the process when you are talking about the amount of money these schoools pull in during these events.
