Originally Posted by
johnb
OTOH, I'm a big fan of incentivizing--as the NCAA did with its entrance requirements a few years back. So, if colleges were told that in order to participate in the NCAA tournament or a bowl game, they needed to have graduated 40% of their entering students during the prior 3 years (leaving out NBA/NFL early entries and transfers to other universities), I think you'd see recruiting change and grad rates go up; a legitimate outcry would be heard from people who would point out that a place like Maryland might then field a team composed of 8 ACC players and 6 academic ringers (who would often be second tier athletically and probably disproproportionately white), but it'd be a start--plus, top-notch players would avoid going to schools that were at risk for dropping below the 40% rate (though perhaps they could then allow academically-eligible people to flee their schools without penalty if the school is on academic probation).
Of course, the above would heavily benefit Duke, which is an added bonus.