New Graduation Success Rate (2007-13)

[Stallion]

ALL STUDENT ATHLETES:

Baylor: 88

TCU: 87

Kansas: 85

Texas: 83

West Virginia: 83

SMU: 82

Oklahoma: 80

Kansas State: 79

Texas Tech: 79

Iowa State: 77

OSU: 70

Houston: 63


Link to all Info

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/res ... tes-search

[mrydel]

Is that because of all the players we have leave early for the NFL?

[78pony]

Can't be right with all that great tutoring...?

[Stallion]

FOOTBALL ONLY:
TCU 83
A&M 83
Kansas 76
West Virginia 74
SMU 73
Baylor 72
Tech 71
Kansas St. 66
Texas 61
OU 59
OSU 59
Iowa St 57
Houston 57

[mrydel]

Did no one from TCU graduate?

[Stallion]

Did no one from TCU graduate?

I added TCU and Houston. Actually these are for kids entering in 2007 (Phil Bennett's last Class) and giving them 6 years to graduate-so TCU may take a hit in future years. Plus in this particular score you do not get penalized if a kid transfers and graduates from another school like a few TCU kids that got kicked out of school.

[CalallenStang]

How are there people struggling to graduate from Houston? I mean, if Cougar King can graduate...

[Mustangs_Maroons]

so to summarize; we bring in subpar athletes that are also subpar students. great winning combination.

now look at notre dame, stanford and duke...

[ghost]

Figures are skewed. LArger programs have many more sports, especially womens, which offset poorer performance of mens football and basketball. However, those all are great numbers compared to the general student body. NCAA needs to make it a 5 year guaranteed scholarship to get better results

[Stallion]

I wanted to emphasize one thing-this really doesn't show current conditions for entering classes. This Rate shows the graduation rate of the Class of 2007 (Phil Bennett's last Class) did giving them 6 years to graduate (whether from SMU or some other transfer school). Here are SMU's past Football numbers:

2000 84
2001 78
2002 79
2003 76
2004 72
2005 74
2006 75
2007 73

by the way the federal government uses a less forgiving number to calculate graduation rate that is also on link. For example, the federal FGR rate for SMU Football in 2007 is 64%

[Killen]

In and of themselves, these numbers don't look "bad". Especially since this takes into account transfers.

However, when put into proper context - its actually pretty discouraging.
-Our Student-Athletes are not falling casualty to financial-aid issues.
-SA's are largely being pushed into the graduation path's of least resistance (i.e Sociology during my tenure)
-SA's have solid access to ALEC tutors and forced Academic Advising

Unfortunately, the problem is that SMU is recruiting Student Athletes that are severely under-prepared (some are wholly) for college courses. Now that we can recruit athletes that make the minimum requirement, we have to do a better job "catching them up" and supporting them all the way through graduation. You can argue that we needed the lowered requirement in order to better compete on the field, but you need to make a significant investment in academic support. The default "support" mentioned here is to make "athlete friendly" majors. But really, that only solves the problem of keeping students eligible rather showing an actual concern for whether or not the student athlete can take full advantage of an SMU degree.

***I have a much bigger bone to pick with SMU in regards to our academic/peripheral support given our embarrassing graduation rates for Black Male students. The Student Athlete Graduation rate used to provide a boost to the overall rate, but this has fallen significantly over the last 4 years.

[CalallenStang]

Jon,

It's great to have you posting here. It was a ton of fun watching you on the basketball court. I hope you're doing well.

From your perspective, where is SMU lacking in support for student athletes? What are the investments we can make to get our student athletes the support they need to graduate, no matter what their background is? What do we need to do to better "coach them up" as you say?

Interested to hear your perspective.

[skurtn]

That report also states that our Men's golf has a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 50% and Men's Tennis of GSR 40%, yet football is at a much higher GSR of 73%.
Something seems awry here...

[mrydel]

I would imagine scholarship funding is much less for tennis and golf and many may not be able to afford to continue. Just a thought.

[SMU2007]

They have access to "easy" classes and full time tutors. I don't know what else you can do besides the unc route of just passing people absolutely no matter what they submit. The athletes have to put forth a minimum effort at least