Officials Urge Raising the Academic Bar for NCAA Tournament Teams: ...Nineteen women’s teams in the tournament have 100 percent graduation rates. Ninety percent of White female players graduate, an increase of 1 percent from last year. Seventy-eight percent of African-American female players graduate, an increase of 3 percent. Among the men, 84 percent of White players graduate, up 6 percent from a year ago, and 56 percent of African-Americans graduate, a 2-percent increase. Players who transfer or leave prior to graduation to play in the NBA do not count against the graduation rate.
There is, however, a continuing persistent gap between White and African-American basketball student-athletes. Lapchick, Duncan, and Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, all stated that the bar must be raised across the board.
“This is really about putting a spotlight on the books,” Jealous said. “There is a spotlight on the court. We all know how these teams perform on the court and how they’ll do in this competition. What we tend not to pay attention to is what they do with these athletes, whether or not they actually graduate.”
“Let’s stop for a second,” Jealous added. “Let’s focus on the books to make sure we set the same sort of high expectations the fans have for the teams’ performances on the court for the players in the classroom.”
