The Big Ten and academics

I think the only time graduation rates are meaningful are when they're at either extreme. If they're Bob Huggins at Cincy bad or Nolan Richardson at Arkansas bad, it's probably an accurate gauge that they're not doing too well.

If they're Bob Knight or Coach K levels, it's probably a sign something is going right.

Everything in between, if a hoops team has one player transfer or leave a year it can destroy a team's graduation rate. It's a complete joke.

 

Graduation rates are deceptive, even among a general student population. The NCAA is selling 'APR' as the new metric for athletic programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Progress_Rate


Here's the NCAA's searchable database:

http://web1.ncaa.org/maps/aprRelease.jsp

 

U.S. News & World Report rankings are also widely considered virtually worthless by many, many people well-versed in the academic field.

The academic profile of an average college football or men's basketball player widely differs from the student body at large; 50 percent of the students at your average BCS AQ university do not major in sociology, liberal/ethnic studies or communication.

Michigan, California and North Carolina, to use three examples, are all among the finest public universities in the country, but to think their football and basketball players are enrolled in the hardest majors is ridiculous.

And if you can really play, you can get in virtually everywhere, no matter the school or the sport.

 

That's what chaps my rear when I hear Mike Patrick blowing Duke and North Carolina about "how they do things the right way" blah blah blah. As if, somehow, the academic hurdle for hoopsters at those schools is somehow higher than that at, say, Maryland or Virginia Tech.

 

It's interesting, but two of the biggest scandals of the last 20 years have come at two great schools from an academic standpoint, Cal and Minnesota.

 

Without comment on any of the four schools you mentioned, it's not wrong out of hand to say that some schools have higher standards for athletes than others. Saying "Virginia football players are held to higher academic standards than Clemson football players" is not the same thing as saying "Virginia football players are held to the same standards as the rest of the Virginia student body". One statement is defensible, the other is laughable.

 

Great schools? Cal yes, Minnesota ... uh ...

 

Minnesota isn't as good as Cal, which is widely regarded as the best public college in the country. But Minnesota is probably considered in the top 10.

 

APR is even worse than graduation rates, which are pretty bad.

It's ludicrous to punish baseball, basketball and football programs -- particularly the big ones -- for sending their players to the pros early. That's the primary reason they exist. Imagine if universities punished business schools if their students took a six-figure job at a consulting firm before they finished their degrees.

 

Great point, Crash.

As we've said elsewhere on SportsJournalists.com, if the NY Times or Washington Post called some kid making $10 a story for the college paper and offered him/her a job, no one would blame the youngster for moving up to the big leagues.

 

Minnesota might be in the top 10 if you're ranking the Big Ten schools.

 

Gophers were No. 23 on the US News rankings of best public universities in the US, so my top 10 was a reach.

Cal was No. 1, UCLA No. 2.