Philly News adds graduation rates for NCAA teams

I don't think this is a d_b, but it sure makes me feel uncomfortable. Is this really part of our jobs as journalists, or are we crossing the line into editoralizing?

http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-17/news/29139101_1_graduation-rate-college-athletics-march-madness

 

Would be a nice subject for a graphic or a column. But in the context of basketball coverage, silly and gratuitous. Crusade the right way, if you must: through reportage, not snide crap like putting it with the regular bracket.

 

I like it. If the NCAA wants to peddle these kids as "student athletes" at each and every press conference, then why not deliver the meaningful statistics on both halves of that equation?

 

"We're going with the data compiled by Dr. Richard Lapchick, at the University of Central Florida Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, because the NCAA's own data hasn't always taken into account transfer students and those leaving school for the NBA"

At least they're trying to use a more honest method of rating than the one the NCAA employs.

 

I work at the Daily News, though I have absolutely nothing to do with college basketball coverage. I don't see the stat as "editorializing." Is there an opposite point to be made in favor of not graduating players? We can all agree that's an important goal, right?
The only argument against publicizing graduation rates I see -- and maybe there are others, I'm just not that plugged into the college scene -- is that it doesn't really account for the present culture, in which guys are required to go to college for a year before they can enter the NBA draft. If you don't graduate a guy because he's a lottery pick after one year at your school, that's a little different from keeping him there four years in general studies.
But I do think there is merit in keeping some sort of reminder around about what college athletics is supposed to be. Even if we all know it isn't.

 

I'm fine with it. Is it editorializing? Of course. And sometimes that's what newspapers do. The fact that it's not in black type on the left rail of the OpEd page doesn't mean it's not a valid editorial statement.

I'd have a problem if this was the ONLY source for people go get a printed bracket. But it's not. So think of this as a double-truck infographic.

 

"Graduation rate" is a really clumsy, blunt statistical instrument. Is "APR" any better?

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/NCAA/NCAA+News/NCAA+News+Online/2010/Division+I/Latest_APR_data_reveal_academic_success_NCAA_News_06_09_10