Graduation Rates Are Awesome

Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe is not happy about the graduation rates of some of the universities in the NCAA tournament.

The NCAA publishes an annual list of graduation rates and it provides serious tsk-tsk material for sports writers who otherwise act as homers for their local college basketball favorites. The list comes out in November, but it's scrutinized at the time of national collegiate championships, particularly football and basketball.



And it seems that each year, John Calipari is mentioned in articles about the list. He has deservedly become the poster child for self-serving coaches who have managed to surf past problems by switching schools while leaving previous schools to clean up the mess in their wake.  But he's hardly alone. Bob Huggins, Gary Williams and a host of other coaches are far more afraid of losing at a kid's game than they are of the consequences of wasting a prime opportunity to help a young man.

Jackson quotes interim NCAA president Jim Isch as saying ('boasting" is the word used by Jackson) that the overall graduation rate for basketball was up nearly 10 percentage points over the last eight years.

“Be assured, the NCAA’s commitment to academics is as strong as it has ever been."

If the NCAA - run, after all, buy college presidents - is truly proud of the graduation numbers, then it's easy to understand how Calipari, Huggins, Williams et al can continue on the paths they've set for themselves.

The only solution is the one that the NCAA would never enforce in any meaningful way: reduce scholarships for schools that don't graduate their players at a rate that at least matches the overall university graduation rate. Of course, if that were to ever occur, we'd never again see a championship game with an SEC or Big 12 team. We'd be reduced to a four team tournament that would be highlighted by the likes of Duke, ND, Stanford and Gonzaga. And who would want that. It's almost collegiate.