Commission reveals low graduation rates

By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

By 2007, Pac-10 teams who graduate less than 50 percent of their
players may be ineligible for postseason play if a recommendation
by the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is
accepted by the NCAA.

According to the most recent NCAA graduation rates report
released in 2000, only three Pac-10 schools (UCLA, USC and
Stanford) would qualify for postseason play in both men’s
basketball and football under the guidelines of the Knight
Commission’s 50 percent recommendation.

Washington State University would be the only other Pac-10
school to qualify in men’s basketball, while Arizona State
University, Oregon State University and UC Berkeley would be
ineligible for both sports.

Citing dropping graduation rates in football and men’s
basketball as its primary concern, the report comes at a time when
neither University of Oklahoma nor Florida State University would
have qualified for the football Division I title game according to
Creed Black, the former president of the Knight Foundation.

“Nobody should be admitted to a school unless they have a
reasonable chance to carry the load academically,” Black
said. “Often athletes are admitted with GPAs and SAT scores
that give no suggestion they can make the grades necessary to
graduate with a degree.”

Former United States Olympics Executive Director and current
member of the Knight Commission Richard Schultz said that the
graduation rates may be deceiving, especially in basketball where a
growing number of players are leaving early for the NBA, thus
contributing to the drop in graduation rates.

“Personally, I feel that million dollar offers have to be
taken into consideration,” Schultz said “The fact that
I would include there is that if athletes leave for professional
sports and leave in good (academic) standing, that should not be
held against the university graduation rates.”

The University of Arizona is a prime example of this trend.
After losing in the 2001 men’s basketball title game, all
five starters decided to give the pro ranks a shot, including four
underclassmen. Sophomore guard Jason Gardner however, withdrew his
name from the NBA draft.

According to the NCAA, the University of Arizona has an average
graduation rate of 17 percent for the freshman classes of 1990-1993
““ the lowest in the Pac-10.

Arizona State University is second lowest at 18 percent with the
University of Oregon next at 21 percent. UC Berkeley is next with
27 percent.

Stanford University managed to graduate 100 percent of its four
class average, while UCLA graduated 60 percent.

And Duke University, Arizona’s opponent in the 2001
men’s basketball title game, graduated 75 percent of its
players.

“A school like Duke or Stanford has different
institutional goals from a commuter school,” NCAA Director of
Public Relations Wally Renfro said. “None of that is saying
that an institution is not doing a good job educating, they have
different missions.”

Stanford University men’s basketball head coach Mike
Montgomery, though, points out that the 50 percent number
recommended by the Knight Commission report might not be a
realistic goal, even by the year 2007.

“I don’t think you can arbitrarily set a number at
50 percent,” Montgomery said. “There are students who
don’t graduate even if they have the best intentions, so I
don’t know if athletes should be held to a higher standard
than the average student.”

Montgomery also said that if you held athletes to the same
criteria as the other entering freshmen, as Stanford does, then
schools like UCLA would no longer have the same caliber of
teams.

There are three Pac-10 schools where the graduation rate of the
student athletes is 10 percent lower than that of the combined
student body ““ UCLA, USC and Cal.

Cal ranks as the worst Pac-10 school in the differential, as its
student body’s graduation rate is 81 percent, while the
student-athletes’ is 59 percent, a 22 percent gap. UCLA is
second, with a 78 percent graduation rate for all of the students
while the student-athletes come in at 59 percent, a 19 percent
drop.

Graduation Rates for the PAC-10 At a number of
Pac-10 universities, graduation rates of football and men’s
basketball players fell below teh school’s overall rates. SOURCE:
NCAA Original graphic by TIMOTHY NGO/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web
adaptation by MIKE OUYANG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff