The days of the stereotypically stupid student athlete may be drawing to an end. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is cracking down on schools that fail to retain and graduate student athletes, sending a positive message about the value of education that should be embraced by the higher-education community.
If a school cannot keep its athletes for a full four years and graduate them, then the purpose of the academic institution is defeated. As part of a university community, student athletes should be pressured to maintain an acceptable academic standing and to finish their studies. The NCAA vowed to discipline low-performing universities by withdrawing athletic scholarships last Monday, after releasing data on the academic standing of every team at every one of the nation’s universities.
The NCAA’s standards are not very high. The penalties are based upon a measure called the Academic Progress Rate. The APR operates on a scale from 1 to 1000, and a minimum score of 925, which translates to about a 50 percent graduation rate, is required for a team to keep its scholarship. Asking every team to graduate half of their athletes is not demanding much.
To their credit, none of Georgetown’s varsity athletic teams is in danger of being sanctioned. Adam Brick, the University’s Interim Director for Athletics, said that tracking student athletes’ classroom performance is already a priority at Georgetown.
“Right now, we review the transcripts of every student athlete, every semester, and make a concerted effort on behalf of the University to ensure that our student athletes are succeeding in the classroom, as well as in the particular sport that they play,” Brick said.
The men’s basketball team sits comfortably at an APR of 975, and several other teams scored perfectly, including both the men’s and women’s teams in lacrosse and soccer.
Punishments will not be meted out until next year’s data is compiled, but several high-profile programs at other schools will likely be forced to improve their academics in the meantime. The University of Connecticut and the University of Southern California, the defending champions in men’s basketball and football respectively, are currently below the minimum APR. UConn’s basketball team actually lies more than 70 points below the minimum.
The NCAA will, however, permit teams to appeal their scholarship losses. A team with a poor APR that reflects that of the general student body or of other Division I teams in the same sport can claim an exception, and no team will lose more than 10 percent of its scholarships in a single year. Teams in sports with small rosters, like basketball, also have windows to circumvent the cuts.
All of these exceptions and buffers limit the effectiveness of the NCAA’s new academic standards. But the fact that the NCAA is pushing academics is a proactive step, and hopefully the first in a long series that will guide college sports back to their original purpose: to develop real scholar-athletes.
