NCAA President Calls For Higher Graduation Standards

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NCAA President Calls For Higher Graduation Standards

Nov 10, 2006

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ELON, N.C. — Major colleges need to start graduating four-fifths of their student-athletes, NCAA President Myles Brand said Wednesday.

In a speech at Elon University, Brand said he wants to foster America's passion for college sports while reinforcing the idea that a college student is at the heart of every college athlete.

"For the first time in public, I want to announce a goal. We will have 80 percent of our student-athletes in Division I schools graduating," Brand said.

Brand's goal raises the bar from the current graduation rate of 76 percent of Division I athletes.

"I want to hold out an aspirational goal," Brand said, noting no specific sanctions would be levied against colleges that fall short of the mark.

But the NCAA is getting tougher on individual sports to make yearly progress in eligibility and retention rates, he said. Penalties include losing scholarships and being disqualified from post-season play.

More than 100 Division I teams faced sanctions for not making enough academic progress last year, including Campbell University's wrestling team and East Carolina University's men's basketball team. The North Carolina State University basketball team also missed its mark but received an exemption as a sport with inherently small numbers.

David Glenn, the editor of ACC Sports Journal, said penalties will get the attention needed to improve graduation rates. But the issue won't really get attention until a major team is penalized, he said.

Duke University's overall student-athlete graduation rate average is 96 percent. Basketball is the university's lowest-performing sport, with a 50 percent graduation rate.

ECU athletes have an overall graduation rate of 81 percent, but basketball trails all others at 57 percent.

The overall rate at the University of North Carolina is 80 percent, with wrestling the weakest performer at 62 percent.

N.C. State's overall rate is 68 percent, with baseball coming in last at 34 percent of athletes graduating.