More Self-Congratulation from the NCAA

Item #1

The NCAA is trumpeting its Colloquium to be held at the NCAA convention on January 10-11, on 'College Sports: A Legitimate Focus for Scholarly Inquiry?' For a far more instructive scoop on this, review the post at Sports Law Blog from April on the Lost NCAA conference.

Item #2

On Wednesday, the NCAA released its latest data manipulation efforts I mean Graduate Success Rate measures:

INDIANAPOLIS—Division I student-athletes continue to perform well in the classroom, and more of them are graduating from college, according to the latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate figures.

From 1995-2000, Graduation Success Rates increased in many sports, including high-profile men’s sports such as basketball, football and baseball, and high-profile women’s sports such as basketball, ice hockey and soccer. In fact, Graduation Success Rates in men’s basketball jumped nearly 8 percent.

WHOOT! WHOOT! Time to jump for joy! Not so fast.

The 'Graduation Success Rate' for Men's Basketball made it all the way to 63%, and that falls after all of the data manipulation, the most important element of which is the fact that students who depart eligible (whether they graduate or not) are counted positively. If one digs deeply enough into the mound of data which the NCAA has released, one discovers that the federally reported graduation rate still stands at an appalling 45%.

It sickens me that the NCAA's propagandizing efforts on behalf of the revenue sports continue to overshadow the laudable efforts of the STUDENT-athletes in other sports.