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Excellence in classroom should coexist with March Madness ach March. I a uthor a widely qu oted study on the graduat ion rat es of the men and wom en playing on th e teams th at mak e it to the R ICHAR D E . NCAA Division I basLAP C HICK ketball tournam ents. Th e study examines th e academ ic perfo r ma nce of mal e and female basketball stu den t athl etes an d of African-American and white basket ball student athletes. When I first sta rted doing th is, the news for th e men's team s was almost always bad: the women have always done well. One of the legacies of th e late Myles Brand's pr esidency at the NCAA will be th e great improvement of the graduation rates for men . However. one of his fru stration s was th at no matter how mu ch that impr oved, the gap betw een th e graduation rates for Africa n-America n a nd wh ite basketball stu dent athletes re ma ine d enor mous . This yea r was no exception . Th ere is a lot of good news. especially for th e wom en 's teams: • 19 wom en 's tournament tea ms had a 100 percen t gradua tio n rate for thei r teams. • 58 women's teams (94 perce nt of the tournament schools for wh ich data was ava ila ble) and 44 men's team s (69 percent) graduated at least 50 percent of their bas ketball student athletes. . 57 of th e women's team s (92 percent) and 37 of the men 's tea m s (58 percent) graduated at least 60 percent. . 51 0f the wom en 's team s (82 percent) and 29of th e men 's tea ms (45 percent) graduated at least 70 percent. . 84 pe rcent of wh ite and 56 percent of Afr ican-American male basketball stu dent athlet es graduated, up 6 percent and 2 percent, respectively,from last year's survey. • 90 percent of white and 78 percent of African-American fem ale basketball student athletes gr ad ua ted , up 1 percent and 3 percen t, resp ectively. • Basketba ll players graduated at a hi gher rate than non-athlet es, no matter what the race or gender. Graduation rates are good indicators but are not perfect because th ey re flect E sPortSBusiness .JOURNAL 120West Morehead Street, Suite 310 Charlotte, NC 28202 T 704 -1400 I fax: 704·973 .I: ·973 ·1401 www .sportsbus inessjoumal.com SubscriptionInformation: 1-800-829-9839 Chairman RayShaw 1 1989to 20091 President/CEO .. . WhitneyShaw Publisher... .. . Richard Weiss N EWS AbrahamMad kourExecutive E ditor Ross Netf1eryM anaging E ditor Rob Knapp Assistant Managing E ditor/News T omStinson As sistant M anaging Editor M arkMensheha As sistantManaging Edit r/National o D Bourn Special R avid e eportsE or dit ditors BettyG es, Jake K om ylerCopy E o 1iffinWarnock Photo Coordinat r Stree t Kentucky's academic progress rate of 979 puts it in the top 10 of teams in the NCAA tournament players who have left school. When you add in a look at th e aca demic progress rat e, you can get a balanced pict ure because APR looks at cur re nt players. It she ds ligh t on a Kentucky team th at , accordin g to the graduation success rate, graduated on ly 31 percent of its immedi at e pas t players. However. its 979 APR was among the top 10 in the tournament a nd placed UK ahead of th e Ivy League champion , Cor ne ll. Under the APR re for ms th at Brand instituted at th e NCAA, penalties are now allowed in the form of a loss of sc holarsh ips for scho ols that do not gradua te th eir student athletes. I have no doubt that many coac hes responded by devot in g mo re resources to ac adem ic support units on cam puses and recruiting ath letes who had a real chanc e to graduate. But the n there is th e bad news. Three of the women 's teams and 12 of the men 's team s graduated less th an 40 percent. In addition , th e grad ua tio nrate gaps between African-American and white bask etball players on the men's and women 's teams were a sta gger in g 28perce nt and 12 pe rcent, respectively.The gap on the men's teams increased by 4 percent from last year: Furthermore, 14women 's tournament teams and 37 men 's teams have a 20perc entage point or greater gap be- Clayton Ha~ , W esSchuenemanEditorial G raphic Designers REPORTERS: CHARWm IPllen.7Q4.91J.1400t. Bill KingSeniorWdter D onMuret.Mi hael SmithStaffWriter c s D Broughton Research D avid irector esearch Associate Brandon McClung R NEW YORK (PIlen. 212·~t. D aniel Kaplan finance E ditor Teny Lefton Editor-at-Large Eric fisher StaffWriter John OurandStaffWriter Tripp Mickle StaffWriter C11ICAGO: JohnLombardo StaffWriter (Phone 312 -2llO-95371 lOSANG ElES(Phone310322-S111t. liz Mullen Bureau Chief & Smith ' .. SpcrtsBu..i n e .... ... OURNAL tween th e graduation rat es of wh ite and African-Am er ica n basketball stude nt at hletes. Of those, eight women 's team s and 28 men's team s have a 30 percentage poin t or greater gap. Th at is unacceptable and, in part, led to a joint confere nce re cently between th e med ia. myself, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and NAACP Pre siden t Ben J ealou s. I subsequentl y spo ke to the Rev.J esse J ac kson , who has been concerned with this issue for more than a decade and says "March Madn ess lead s to May sadness." Dun can proposed that teams sho uld be banned from th e tournam ent if they gradua te less th an 40 percent of their players. In spite of the fact th at 40 percent is a low bar. many argued th at this was not fa ir because it penalized schools because of the ir past. I th ink we need to use the APR for suc h sanctions, perhaps with two years to settle in before being banned . Th e APR score th at is the equivale nt of a 45 percent graduation rat e is 900. Sin ce th e APR cut score is 925, using the 900APR score would be fa ir and is another low bar. In this men's tournam ent, th ree team s were below 900: UC·Santa Barbara , Mor gan State and New Mexico State. As the former school superintendent in Ch icago, Dun can knows that one root of the pr oblem is th at schoo ls are SteveBilafer, B C ud ollins, T C om ordova. len -K G evin ale;51. Louis- ChristopherTritto; Wichita- Pat Sangrmino Elmore, John Iien , Cl rk C. G zale a riffith, Mark Hyme Ri hardLa n, c pchicK. Donna Ic pianc. re cr uitin g many of our Afr ica n-Arner ican bask etb all players from inner-city areas. Too many urban schoo ls are un derfunded. have less techn ology and, often , less-effecti ve teachers such that they ca nn ot level th e aca demic playing field. This makes it fa r more difficult for student ath letes and stude n ts from urb an schoo ls in general to be succes sful. Dun can is directly addressing th is as education secretary, and we are fortunate to have him. He knows it can be don e. It was recently repo r ted that at Urb an Prep Academy tor Young Men , Ch icago's onl y public a ll-ma le, all-Afri can-Arnerican h igh schoo l, all 107 sen iors ea rned spots at 72 colleges and un iversities across th e nation. It opened in 2006. whe n Dun can was schoo l supe rin tendent. In th e meantime, adm iss ions officers need to admit only students who can succeed academically. But to get to th e heart of this we need March Madness fans and sponsors to ste p up and sa y, Yes we want the excitement that th e tournam ent brings. but we als o want an equal playing field for all those student athletes compe ting on the courts to also prev ail in our classroo ms . • R icha rd E. La pchick (rlapchick@bus . ucfedu) L~ the director of the Ins titute fo r Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the Un iversity of Centra l Florida. wh ich annually p ubl ishes the study 'A cadem ic Prog ress! Gradua tion Su ccess Rates of Division 1 NCAA Women 's and Men 's Basketball Tournament Teams. " Lapchick is the author of 15 books thatfoc us primarily on racial a nd gender issues and ethics in college sports. IT'S YOUR TURN TO SPEAK OUT Guest columnsmaybesenttoStreet & Smith's SportsBusinessJournal, 120 W. Morehead St., Suite 310, Charlotte, NC 28202. For further information, please contact Betty Gomes at(704!973·1439 orbgomes @sportsbusinessjournal.com. l OS ANGElES : M arkB. 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