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My great uncle teaches at Ole Miss, and they just released the SEC graduation rates for 2011 athletic teams. And as everyone suspected, besides vanderbilt, the SEC football programs have woeful graduation rates.
Mod Edit: 2010 Big 10 rates below. For the other big players, click here. [zl]
| Football Graduation Rates: Big 10 | |
|---|---|
| Northwestern | 92% |
| Penn St. | 85% |
| Iowa | 74% |
| Michigan | 71% |
| Illinois | 69% |
| Indiana | 67% |
| Wisconsin | 65% |
| Ohio St. | 62% |
| Purdue | 59% |
| Michigan St. | 56% |
| Minnesota | 54% |
Those rates really aren't that bad, especially for schools like Alabama and Florida, which are NFL factories. I don't know if our rate is any higher than that. Keep in mind that a guy that comes back to school years later to get his degree does not count in the official graduation rate. It's only those who graduate within a 5-6 year window. Part of the reason why Vanderbilt has a higher rate may simply be that fewer of its players go on to the NFL.
NFL early draft enrollees doesnt really explain Tennessee or Ole Miss though, does it? :o)
They are bad. In four years we can assume 85 scholarship players should graduate. At 67% that means 28 kids don't graduate. If you want to assume that it's b/c kids are leaving early then you should only count those who leave after their junior year which is not that big of a number. I am embarrassed at UM's number. That is not high enough.
Transfers don't graduate and M has a lot over the course of the last 4 years with two coaching changes.
But if you look at the second article, the one where he got the Big Ten numbers it says that in the Graduation Success Rate, which is the 71% for Michigan, outgoing transfers don't count. The article brings this up because Florida has a 69% GSR, but a Federal Graduation Rate of 49%, and the FGR counts transfers. So 71% for Michigan, especially given the lack of NFL talent we've been producing the last 4 years, is pretty ugly for a school that's priding itself on being more about the Student than almost every other school/conference; especially when the FBS average is only 67%, being 4% better is hardly the Michigan Difference.
Furthermore, our school average graduation rate is 87%, and with a 16 point difference that's good (bad?) enough to land us on a list along the likes of MSU, Cal, Arizona, Oregon, and Oklahoma. Not exactly sure fire examples of academic success on that list
For instance ND has gone through a coaching change as well as lack of quality NFL prospects but their Graduation Rate is an astounding 96%
but a lack of NFL prospects and excellent graduation rate have pretty clear synergy.
I think that is happening at quite a few schools these days. Look at Tennessee, they've been through two football coaches, a basketball and baseball coach all in the past year and a half. Coaching changes really affect the grad rates.
It would be interesting to see how the B1G compares.
What happened with him? I heard he is with the Lions, but my buddy says that he is a personal trainer out in Long Beach, California. I had high hopes for him.
He was cut from the Lions' practice squad and has been MIA since then (not literally).
Womens basketball sort of skews the results, maybe due to fairly respectable numbers. Intersting to see the mens averages alone when you work them out. Also, 22% Arkansas? Giving Georgetown a run for their money.
I wonder how much the severe limitation on baseball scholarships has on those numbers? It is my understanding that D1 baseball only allows 11.7 (!?!?) total scholarships for the 25-man squad. Unlike many other sports, it is quite common for baseball players to only get partial athletic scholarships. Could this be why you see so many baseball players leave school and sign minor league contracts?
And the worst equivalency sport of all: men's ice hockey. Not that the others aren't bad either; a school should be able to offer a student as much support as they can afford, competitive balance be damned.
I was an assistant coach on a college baseball team. I don't believe that players left because they were only getting partial schlorships. There is other money out there available to help out (ie grants). But what I always found interesting was finding the kid with good grades that only took $500 schlorship was just important in recruiting as the great player you gave alot of money to. You needed these kids to keep team GPAs up and offset the money you gave to the good players.
Wow, sparty has bad graduation rates even for SEC standards.
I would to hear their excuse for this one and how MSU is still a good academic school when all information points to the opposite.
Wouldn't their athletes not being able to graduate prove that their academics are actually somewhat strong?
The way I've always heard it spun was that State was easy to get into but hard to get a degree from.
Frankly, athletic graduation rates probably have nothing to do with the overall quality of a school's academics. It has more to do with the school's academic support system for athletes, how much a school lowers its standards for athletes, coaching staff stability (transfers don't graduate), and how hard staffs steer their players into easy/easier programs.
MSU is actually a pretty good school--as are the rest of the Big 10 universities.
OSU has to deal with a good percentage of its Juniors declaring for the draft each year; I'm not sure that Minny is plagued with that problem.
when you are kicked off the team or in the state pen serving time for dorm and frat house beat downs.
Seems comparable to b1g or slightly worse.
Aside from UK and Vandy, the other teams really aren't that relevant. Don't know how they can explain this. Plus, for football, if we are worried about our APR because of attrition, how do any (aside from Vandy) of them pass, especially LSU and Bama. Their attrition is higher because of oversigning and the graduation rates are much lower. Doesn't make much sense.
Northwestern leads the Big 10 once again. Penn State is a surprisingly strong second in the conference with a grad rate of 85%. Ohio State showed the most improvement, going from 52% last year to 62% this year.
Could this be due to the fact that OSU held several players hostage with promises to stay for their senior year? Did other players stay on as a result?
Our basketball team's graduation rate is pitiful.
The B1G only has a 68.54% avg(no Nebraska in the chart). So, I'd say those numbers are actually somewhat respectable. Granted the B1G numbers provided are from 2010. I'm interested in the 2011 outcome. This pretty much tells me that about once every four years a B1G school graduates one more player than the SEC.
I'd have to admit my over expectations of the B1G numbers. Was a definite mistake on my part.
We're still a good bit better than them. Our smart school is better than theirs by three points, and our next four are better than their number two. I'd say on average we're three or four percentage points higher, which isn't crazy high but certainly significant.
that Indiana's grad rate is so low.
Surely they don't send too many kids to the NFL? Same goes for Minny.
