Bowl Teams Fail in the Classroom

Exhibit 3,293 as to why we should view NCAA basketball and football as cost-free minor league systems for pro leagues, and not as academic experiences for their participants:

This year's bowl-bound college football teams are struggling to meet the NCAA's new academic standards, with 41 percent falling below minimum requirements and almost half lacking a 50 percent graduation rate, according to a survey released Monday.

Developed last year, the NCAA's new academic standard awards APR points based on how many scholarship student-athletes meet academic eligibility standards. A cutoff score of 925 means an estimated 50 percent of those student-athletes are on track graduate.

Starting this year, NCAA schools that regularly fall below the 925 score can lose scholarships, face recruiting restrictions and miss postseason play.

In a dry run of the system last year, more than 90 percent of Division I teams across all sports had passing scores. According to Richard Lapchick's report, only 33 of the 56 bowl-bound teams -- 59 percent -- got above the 925 cutoff.

Dr. Richard Lapchick of the University of Central Florida conducted this analysis. As we discussed in March, he conducted a similar study of DI basketball teams (and 43 of the 65 teams in the 2005 NCAA Tournament failed to graduate even half of their players). Lapchick now notes that schools are simply taking in football players who cannot do the work (see: University High School). They likely do so because those students will make a lot of money for those schools (which explains why DI basketball and football players spend between 40 and 50 hours a week playing games, traveling, attending team meetings, working-out, and practicing, all the while their classmates are often precluded from working more than 20 hours a week: those players don't generate revenue for their schools when they are in the classroom, so they are encouraged to be out on the field instead).

No wonder why some premiere athletes want to skip college and go to the pros: instead of being unpaid pros in college, they can be well-paid ones in the pros!

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