NCAA Game Highlights Educational Inequality
What's not being trumpeted is the abysmal graduation rate at Ohio State -- only 10% of the basketball team graduates* within six years after starting college. (tip) And if you think the other 90% gets a ticket to the pros, I have some land in eastern Washington I'd love to sell ya.
This 1-in-10 compares to about 7-in-10 undergraduate Buckeyes who go on to get an undergraduate degree in six years.
What may be even more astounding: "three of the Sweet 16 schools fail to graduate even half of their overall student populations."
As a University of Georgia Bulldog, I hate to give any credit to the Gators, but in this instance, I do so without begrudging them the honor. Their basketball team graduation rate is almost as high as the overall rate at OSU (67% to 68.2%), and their overall rate is 8-in-10. That means that most basketball team members in Florida have as good a chance at getting a diploma in six years as any other undergrad.
More About These Data
The NCAA has a table of six-year graduation rates for all NCAA schools. The overall data diverge wildly from that of the sweet 16 (Division 1) finalists.
Aside: Who knew that basketball had a much lower graduation rate than football? Not me.
In addition to the issue of athlete v non-athlete graduation rates, we have to look at what's up when the athlete is black. USA Today reported in December that "[f]ewer than half the black basketball players who entered Division I schools on scholarship in the four-year period from 1995-98 earned degrees within six years. In I-A and I-AA football, blacks graduated at a modest 54% rate. It was 55% in I-A."
According to the NCAA, the average six-year graduation rate for all NCAA schools is 60% -- and the athletic graduation rate is 62%. Ladies and gentlemen, this one is hard to swallow, that athletes graduate at a higher rate, especially when only 55% of the football players and 44% of the basketball players graduate in six years.
How can this be? In part, it's because the NCAA has redefined "graduate." If a NCAA athlete leaves in "good academic standing" to transfer to another school or go pro, they aren't counted in the did-not-graduate column. This is the (*) from my first mention of OSU graduation rates.
The federal graduation rate does not count the person who leaves for a pro team contract as a graduate -- which is appropriate, because it doesn't count the non-athlete who quits to go work in the family business as a graduate, either. Just a warning. Be sure you know the source of the data when trying to compare disparate sub-sets of students.
So, if someone leaves college to play for the Knicks or the Cowboys, that is not automatically a knock in the graduation rate. Read on:
The NCAA rate takes incoming transfers into account. And it doesn't count outgoing transfers — or players who leave school for any other reason, including a pro draft — against schools if they leave in good academic standing. Both methods, however, show black athletes as less likely than whites to emerge from school with degrees.
The source of the data that gives OSU a blackeye is the NCAA.
In an era of rising tuition rates for publicly funded colleges and universities -- one has to ask if in today's environment we haven't moved past the point where the tail (sports) is wagging the dog (education).
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