COLUMN: Graduation rates are a total disgrace

From Michael Hasday's "Curve Ball," Fall '95 His team has made the NCAAs the last six season. That's good for some brownie points, I would think. But the latest results are not as good for the Big 5 coach, and it has nothing to do with his guard woes. The most recent NCAA survey of graduation rates are in, and Chaney's recruits are out -- on the streets without a degree. According to The New York Times, the results from the latest NCAA survey -- which tracked the percentage of scholarship men's basketball players who obtained degrees among freshmen entering college from 1985 through 1988 -- show that Chaney's program had an abysmal 36 percent graduation rate. This should give Penn fans pause when they watch the Penn-Temple game Feb. 20. What we will be watching is exploitation. The results of the survey -- and there are many schools with even lower rates than the Owls -- show that for many schools the notion of student-athlete is a joke. These results, which show that the average graduation rate for Division I basketball players is 39 percent -- expose the relationship between athletes and universities as one-sided. The universities makes millions off the athletes' talents, but the players do not get even an education. If this is what college basketball has come to, the schools should just eliminate the hypocrisy by bidding for the players and making registering for classes optional. There may be nothing, in fact, inherently wrong for schools to sponsor semi-pro teams. However, I do not propose such an extreme solution. What gives me hope are the schools that buck the trend, recording high percentages in won-loss records and graduation rates. Georgetown (86 percent), North Carolina (82 percent), Virginia (83 percent) and Stanford (86 percent) have all proved that it is possible for teams to win on the court and in the classroom. Villanova, a Big 5 school like Temple, ends its similarity with the Owls there. 'Nova registered a sparkling 83 percent in the survey, while also placing in the quarterfinals in the 1988 NCAA Tournament. Also, Penn -- which is not a part of this survey because it is a non-scholarship school -- exemplifies the right type of program. All the seniors on last year's Ivy championship team have graduated. So what can be done? Malcolm Moran, a columnist for The New York Times, suggests that only teams with graduation rates of at least 50 percent be allowed to play in those early-season events (like the Preseason NIT) that do not count towards a team's allowable number of games. That would have eliminated Connecticut (43 percent), Massachusetts (38 percent) and Maryland (38 percent). Moreover, Moran says teams which rates under 33 percent in two consecutive reports should be banned for a year from the NCAA Tournament if the coach is not replaced. In this report, Kansas (30 percent), Kentucky (21 percent), U.C.L.A. (25 percent), Cincinnati (19 percent) and Syracuse (21 percent) all miss that mark and would have to miss the Tournament unless they improved or fired their coach. However, Moran concedes that "such a rule would lead to the same response that has greeted so many other rules: instantaneous circumvention in the form of an easily gained degree." Tightening standards is definitely welcome, despite the fact the coaches will look for ways around these rules. There is just too much money in this sport for coaches not to look for ways to get the edge, but that should not stop the NCAA from trying. Barring the worst offenders from the NCAA tournament is also probably a good idea. But what would stop these abuses from happening is pressure -- not from the NCAA, but from the public. If the public refuses to watch this exploitation, tickets will not be sold and high Nielson ratings would not be had. The millions that fill the coffers of the coaches and universities would disappear. Perhaps when Temple comes to the Palestra in late February, we should not show up.