NCAA Grad-Rate Data Shows Athletes Topping General Students

Graduation Rates For College Basketball Players Up From Last Year

The NCAA released figures stating that 63% of Division I student-athletes who entered college in ’99 graduated within six years, compared to 61% of non-student-athletes, according to Camille Powell of the WASHINGTON POST. Both rates increased by one percentage point from last year’s figures. The rates for football (55%) and men’s basketball (46%) “remained lower than the national average.” And the 56% rate for male athletes was lower than the 71% for female athletes. In men’s basketball, the overall rate was up from 43% last year, and the rate among African Americans was 42%, up from 38% (WASHINGTON POST, 11/10). Overall, African-Americans (53%) and Hispanics (58%) “continued to lag behind other ethnicities when earning diplomas” (AP, 11/9). The NCAA also produced stats for its Graduation Success Rate (GSR), which accounts for transfer students. The GSR rate for D-I athletes was 77% (L.A. TIMES, 11/10).

JUSTIFY THE MEANS: U.S. House Ways & Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) last month as part of an inquiry into the NCAA’s tax-exempt status “took issue with incoming college athletes who ‘at many universities have lower average SAT scores and high school grades than those of the general student body.’” NCAA President Myles Brand said the average SAT score for incoming D-I athletes is 50 points higher than for all incoming students and, “as further rebuttal, pointed to the latest grad-rate data.” Brand: “There are critics who ignore the research and the data and continue to peddle the myth that student-athletes are poor students” (USA TODAY, 11/10).