Recently, there have been many inconsistencies exposed in
the NCAA’s enforcement and legitimacy of policies. At broad sight, the NCAA has
fumbled key matters which have led many league members, and the always critical
outsiders, to question its jurisdiction. The self-inflicting damage was
conveyed through inconsistent and erratic enforcement of sanctions on
universities such as Miami, Penn State, and the University of Southern
California. The NCAA’s iron fist dealing with student-athletes being paid
beyond scholarships has also raised many the eyebrow. However, the academic
production from student-athletes improves significantly as the NCAA is simultaneously
questioned on its morality.
The NCAA recently announced that 82 percent of Division I
student-athletes who entered college in 2006 earned their degrees, the highest
ever, 8 percent higher than in 1995 when the initial tracking began.
The day will come when the NCAA will have to answer the questions
about their many inconsistencies and fallacies regarding the sanctions levied
on these universities. A judgment of dividing up profits with student-athletes
may also be soon approaching. On the
other hand, while it is an athletic association with endless flaws, it has
truly made a significant impact upon the lives of thousands of student-athletes
by seeing them through graduation by the implementation of tracking academic
and graduation success rates. Through this tracking, administrators, coaches,
and even student-athletes are working together to ensure that education is at
the core of every athletic department. The
NCAA has a more than admirable handle on academics within collegiate athletics.
If ever questioned on its effectiveness, this is certainly something for the
NCAA to hang its hat on.
I have always thought that the graduation rate of college athletes has been over looked way to much. We always hear about the hot topics like pay for play and recruiting violations but we hardly ever hear about the athletes and whether or not they are graduating. If we truly believe that these are "student-athletes", then why is there not a bigger emphasis on the graduation rate of the NCAA athletes? I was surprised to see that D-1 athletes had an 82% graduation rate. I would be interested to see what D-2 and D-3 were compared to D-1 and the percentage of males and females graduating.
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