Education Chief: Raise Bar for NCAA Teams

(AP)  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pushed a proposal Wednesday to bar men's college basketball teams from postseason play if they fail to graduate 40 percent of their players, an idea that didn't go over well with the NCAA and coaches preparing for March Madness.

If put into practice this year, a dozen teams in the NCAA tournament would be ineligible, based on an annual study from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

That includes a No. 1 seed, Kentucky, which graduated 31 percent of its players, according to the institute's latest report.

"Frankly, that's a low bar, and not many teams would be ineligible," Duncan, who played college basketball at Harvard, said on a conference call. "Over time, we should set a higher bar. But it's a minimum, a bright line, which every program should meet to vie for postseason honors."

Duncan emphasized the troubling disparities between graduation rates for black and white players.

The annual report examining the NCAA tournament field found that 45 teams graduated 70 percent or more of their white players, up from 33 teams last year. But only 20 teams graduated at least 70 percent of their black players, the same as last year. Two teams — Maryland and California — graduated none of their black players who started school from 1999 through 2002, Duncan said.

Even so, the study pointed out, graduation rates for black basketball players are 18 percent higher than for male black students who are not athletes.

The men's basketball teams that would barred from postseason play this year if Duncan's idea were adopted: Maryland (8 percent graduation rate), California (20 percent), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (29 percent), Washington (29 percent), Tennessee (30 percent), Kentucky, Baylor (36 percent), Missouri (36 percent), New Mexico State (36 percent), Clemson (37 percent), Georgia Tech (38 percent) and Louisville (38 percent).

Bob Williams, an NCAA spokesman, said the sports governing body shares Duncan's concern about low graduation rates of some tournament teams. But he said the NCAA believes a ban based on graduation rates wrongly penalizes current student-athletes for the academic performances of those who entered as freshman eight to 11 years ago.

The numbers cited Wednesday by Duncan measure six-year graduation rates for the freshman classes that entered college from the 1999-2000 through 2002-03 school years. Schools are not penalized for players who transfer or go to the NBA as long as they are in good academic standing at the time.

For the past six years, the NCAA has used a formula called the Academic Progress Rate that measures factors such as athletes' academic eligibility, progress toward graduation and staying in school. A school faces sanctions if it fails to achieve a certain score for two consecutive years.

So far one school, Centenary, has been banned from Division I postseason basketball under the system. Another three — Georgia Tech, Tennessee and New Mexico State — have lost scholarships, Williams said.

"What we want to do at the end of the day is change behavior so that when people come to college, they have to be prepared to do the work and institutions are prepared to support them academically," Williams said. "We shouldn't measure success by how many teams receive a ban."

Duncan said that while the NCAA has made progress in recent years, it hasn't gone far enough. He said making the postseason is "the prize," and a great motivation. Duncan said he's open to using a different calculation other than older graduation rates if it is "fair, honest and transparent."

Duncan made a similar argument speaking at an NCAA conference earlier this year, but is using the spotlight of the tournament to press his case again. The federal government can't mandate minimum graduation rates for postseason eligibility. That's the NCAA's decision.

Coaches' reactions were largely critical.

"We're going to graduate three seniors on this team, and we're going to have a junior that's going to graduate this year," Kentucky's John Calipari said. "So, academically, I'm all about that."

Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl said his program is "disappointed and apologetic in many, many ways to be on that list." He said numbers have improved each year he's been there but "they're not where I want them to be. I want to graduate them all."

However, Pearl also said Duncan should concentrate his efforts on secondary education, saying the real problems lie in under-equipped schools beset with budget issues.

"I share the pain in not having student-athletes graduate," Pearl said. "But I don't want to deny the opportunity to students that aren't prepared. And I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to fight for the student-athletes that come in and aren't as prepared."

Georgetown coach John Thompson III, whose university gets high marks for graduation rates, said Duncan's 40 percent cutoff "sounds harsh. That's just my initial thought. Our responsibility is to help young men grow up. And when you say graduate, what time frame are we talking about? What are the other factors that fall into place? Are we talking about a four-year window, five-year window, 10-year window?"

[pragmatist1]

Colleges have been pandering and circumventing the real point of its college. I really don't think it's "raising the bar" by Duncan to only expecting a paltry 40% of NCAA teams to graduate. Colleges have turned a blind eye in recruiting a jock, without fundamentally require strict academic and intellectual proficiency. Those schools that do manage to graduate their jocks usually over look the academic aspect. College sport is only about making money, never mind the academic aspects.

[hateisafourletterword]

Then take CFB and mens CBK out of the colleges. They are basically minor leagues for the NFL and NBA anyway. Just watch what the boosters do then! No school needed.

On the plus side, the burglary and theft crime rates on campus will likely go down - especially in Eugene.

[jackp32]

It looks like the NCAA tourney of the future will include the Ivy League schools and a few others like Duke, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vandy, Boston College and some others. Should be exciting.

[Naffman]

Here we go with another band aid. Why not focus more energy at the root cause of this problem? If the graduation rates are low at certain colleges then the problem is the athletes are not educated early on. This guy needs to stop trying to make statements to get in the media focus and on early education. Shame on the school for taking someone who isn't qualified, but let's get real; Men's NCAA B-Ball is huge money for the 'non-profit' NCAA and the colleges as well. Who's going to turn down big money? Definitely not politicians.

[hateisafourletterword]

Not to mention a money generator for Title 9 sports too! Most D1 programs are run almost totally on revenue either generated by Football or Mens Basketball. Take those both away and watch the athletic departments fold overnight for the remaining mens and womens sports teams. Every sport will end up as a club sport - and maybe that is the way it should be anyway.

[squeakof2006]

Stop giving the "student" athletes full rides to play at your school and make them work a little on the side, like most of us do and make them maintain at least a "C" average to keep the scholarship, like most of us do, and maybe they'd have high enough grades to pass their classes and graduate. Education involves more than playing a sport well. There is no shame in having to work you rear off to get through college. I'm not an athlete, so I didn't qualify for any of the full scholarships, because the music dept. isn't able to give full scholarships, but the athletic dept. is. I donate my plasma for $20.00 a time to make ends meet. It's worth it. I'm actually earning my degree. Most "student" athletes are in school for the parties, not to be students, so they fail and can't graduate. Take away their scholarships and make them work. It might help with the problematic graduation rates.

[hateisafourletterword]

Many universities have these side jobs working for boosters. That is how these young kids can afford Hummers and Escalades while at USC and Miami.

[tsigili]

Sports should not be a reason to graduate a student. It might gain an education at little or no outlay, but the student should still have to maintain grades and graduate, by the same standards as a non-athlete.

[hateisafourletterword]

Why is this the schools problem. They give these "student athletes" who are really minor league players a free tuition package. If the student athlete drops out and does not graduate why blame the school. Is it ever the fault of the kid and his or her parents?

We do not force schools to meet graduation requirements for business school students or library science majors, why athletes?

[Gator96]

Well said! On the other side of the coin you have the partial qualifiers who shouldn't be at a major university taking away a scholarship from a student athlete that actually wants an education. Don't penalize the school for low graduation rates. There should be enforcement that the athletes have to have the same entrance qualifications as the general student body.