Report: Most Bowl-Bound Colleges Graduating Less Than Half of its Players
Date: Monday, December 05, 2005
By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com
If there was a national college football championship based on college graduation rates, it wouldn’t look like the anticipated Rose Bowl brawl between the Trojans of USC and the Longhorns of Texas.
Instead, the match-up would be between the Wildcats of Northwestern and the Eagles of Boston College -- two institutions that rank high in their overall graduation rate of football players and the graduation rate for black football players, according to a study released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.
Both teams graduated 78 percent of all football players and at least 74 percent of their black football players.
Those numbers rank far ahead of many bowl-bound schools. Of the 56 Division I-A schools selected to participate in bowls, 27 -- or 49 percent -- did not have a 50-percent overall graduation rate for its football players. Also, 23 teams, or 41 percent, of those bound for bowls did not meet the NCAA’s required score of more than 925 in their academic progress rate.
“It is most disturbing that even after all of this attention has been placed on academic progress rates, such a huge percentage of colleges still are not seeing an improvement in academic success,†said Richard Lapchick, author of the report and eminent scholar chair at the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida.
“If a 50-percent projected graduation rate was required, 41 percent of the teams in the bowls wouldn’t make the cut on the academic progress rate, and 49 percent wouldn’t make the cut because of graduation rates,†Lapchick told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
The NCAA established the APR in response to concerns in the organization and at member institutions to make colleges more accountable when it comes to academic performance. Colleges that do not meet NCAA standards for educating and graduating its athletes will be subject to penalties, said NCAA spokesman Bob Williams.
“The bottom line is we want students to be successfully academically and athletically,†Williams told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “The vast majority of Division I athletes do not go and play professional sports. That’s an aspect of reality. We need young folks, their coaches and their parents to understand this, so that they can be prepared.â€
Lapchick said he also is alarmed by the continued disparity between the graduation rates of black and white athletes.
Here’s what the numbers show in black and white for this year's bowl-bound teams.
The Rose Bowl: USC Trojans vs. Texas Longhorns. USC graduated 58 percent of its football players. A total of 52 percent of the black football players graduated, and 65 percent of the white players graduated, for a gap of 13 percent.
A total of 34 percent of the Texas football players graduated -- 33 percent of the black players and 36 percent of the white players, for a gap of 2 percent.
FedEx Orange Bowl: Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Florida State Seminoles. Penn State graduated 74 percent of its football players. A total of 72 percent of the black football players graduated, compared with 76 percent of the white players, for a gap of 2 percent. Florida State graduated 49 percent of its football players -- 43 percent of the black players and 71 percent of the white players, for a gap of 28 percent.
Nokia Sugar Bowl: West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Georgia Bulldogs. West Virginia graduated 46 percent of its football players. A total of 33 percent of the black football players graduated, and 56 percent of the white football players graduated, for a gap of 23 percent. Georgia graduated 53 percent of its football players -- 40 percent of the black players and 73 percent of the white players, for a gap of 33 percent.
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Ohio State Buckeyes. Notre Dame graduated 77 percent of its football players, including 76 percent of both its black and white players. Ohio State graduated 52 percent of its football players -- 43 percent of the black players and 63 percent of the white players, for a gap of 20 percent.
“Overall at the 119 Division 1A schools, 63 percent of white football student-athletes graduated, versus only 47 percent of African-American football student-athletes, Lapchick said. “However, it must be noted that both African-American and white football players graduate at a higher rate than their male non-athletic peers in the student body. The graduation rate for African-American male students as a whole is only 40 percent, in comparison to the 61 percent graduation rate for white male students. This gap remains scandalous at 21 percent.
“They are on the same teams and at the same schools,†Lapchick said. “Schools should be committed to ensuring that athletes are successful in the classroom and on the field. Too many of our predominately-white campuses are not welcoming places for students of color, regardless of whether they are athletes.â€
NCAA statistics were used in the study. The Institute reviewed data collected from member institutions for the academic years of 2003-04 and 2004-05.
The report also showed that:
10 schools (18 percent) had graduation rates for black football student-athletes that were at least 30 percent lower than the rates for white football student-athletes.
28 schools (51 percent) had graduation rates for black football student-athletes that were at least 20 percent lower than the rates for white football student-athletes.
Only 10 schools had graduation rates for black football student-athletes that exceeded the rates for white football student-athletes. They were South Florida (21 percent higher); Rutgers (12 percent higher); Houston and Tulsa (each six percent higher); Northwestern (five percent higher); Fresno State, Nevada and UTEP (each four percent higher); Southern Miss (three percent higher) and BYU (two percent higher).
