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View Full Version : NCAA: Serious about graduating student-athletes?



Verga3
03-21-2010, 11:14 AM
This Ed Hardin column takes on a subject we all have talked about before. http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/03/21/article/division_iii_is_basketball_the_way_it_was_intended _to_be

In the bask of March Madness and how it has unfolded this year (or any year for that matter), how badly would we miss a few "marquee" teams if their players don't perform in the classroom. At the end of the day, this IS college.....

Possible solutions/policies to suggest to the NCAA?

mgtr
03-21-2010, 11:22 AM
I think the guy has it exactly right. I don't see that any recommendations to the NCAA would go far, since their interest is in maximizing their revenues. Maybe if you got the presidents of top schools (schools, not BB programs) they could influence the NCAA, but it would be a long, tough process.

loran16
03-21-2010, 11:22 AM
This Ed Hardin column takes on a subject we all have talked about before. http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/03/21/article/division_iii_is_basketball_the_way_it_was_intended _to_be

In the bask of March Madness and how it has unfolded this year (or any year for that matter), how badly would we miss a few "marquee" teams if their players don't perform in the classroom. At the end of the day, this IS college.....

Possible solutions/policies to suggest to the NCAA?

Never happen. See the problem with a graduation rate cut-off is that players leaving early wreaks havoc on graduation rate. So in order to have a fair cut-off point there would need to be a rule that players who go to college stay 4 years.

For obvious reasons this'll never happen.

The best they'll do is suspend scholarships for poor ratings but that never changes Maryland or NC State or one of these other ones that have poor ratings.

JG Nothing
03-21-2010, 11:43 AM
Never happen. See the problem with a graduation rate cut-off is that players leaving early wreaks havoc on graduation rate. So in order to have a fair cut-off point there would need to be a rule that players who go to college stay 4 years.

For obvious reasons this'll never happen.

The best they'll do is suspend scholarships for poor ratings but that never changes Maryland or NC State or one of these other ones that have poor ratings.

You sign a player and either he/she graduates in six years from your school or does not. Seems simple to me. (That is how graduation rates are typically calculated for schools.) This will require coaches to think more carefully about who they sign and their relationships. The primary job of coaches as educators should be to help players get a degree. Getting a job in the NBA is secondary.

I realize this will never happen, but that is because higher education has been commodifed to such a degree that it is now seen as simply a path to an occupation.

Verga3
03-21-2010, 11:53 AM
Never happen. See the problem with a graduation rate cut-off is that players leaving early wreaks havoc on graduation rate. So in order to have a fair cut-off point there would need to be a rule that players who go to college stay 4 years.

For obvious reasons this'll never happen.

The best they'll do is suspend scholarships for poor ratings but that never changes Maryland or NC State or one of these other ones that have poor ratings.

You may be right. I don't know what the average percentages are nationally on kids leaving early. We are thinking about basketball here, but the NCAA imposes academic guidelines for football and field hockey, too. There should be a minimum bar set somewhere even if it initially differs between say, men's basketball and swimming.