Ivies Absent in Athlete Graduation Rates

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Recently I was looking at the NCAA website on athlete graduation rates (http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics_and_athletes/education_and_research/academic_reform/grad_rate/2006/d1_school_grad_rate_data.html). I wanted to compare Patriot League schools' football graduation rates versus the Ivy league. Curiously, I was unable to do so. Look at Harvard's report (http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/inst2006/275.pdf). All their athletes are not considered having "athletic aid", so they are not counted in this report.

Shouldn't some pressure be put on the NCAA to have the Ivies disclose this information? While the aid is not "athletics based" per se, athletic ability does come into play when getting offered financial aid and academic scholarships. Isn't it the height of hypocrisy when the Knight Commission of Intercollegiate athletics (who writes academic reports critical of schools' poor graduation rates (http://www.knightcommission.org/media/item/baseball_2005/)), has as one of their co-chairmen a Harvard alumnus, while Harvard won't publish their athletes' graduation rates?

[Ivytalk]

Chill out, LFN. Harvard University's grad rate is in the upper 90s, and student athletes don't bring the average down!xcoffeex

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Chill out, LFN. Harvard University's grad rate is in the upper 90s, and student athletes don't bring the average down!xcoffeex

How would we know?

[NE MT GRIZZ]

How would we know?

They spend all their time studying instead of preparing for the
FCS playoffs!:eek:

[Ivytalk]

Ivy schools provide need-based aid, and I thought most PL schools did the same. Sure, coveted athletes (like coveted violinists and coveted writers) will get their share of the dough, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. If Harvard's grad rate for athletes is 98% and Lehigh's is 95%, what does that prove?:confused:

[dbackjon]

Again, how do we know.

[ChickenMan]

A10/CAA football graduation rates...

W&M... 98 %
Villanova.. 93
Richmond.. 91
UNH... 81
Delaware.. 80
N'eastern.. 75
URI... 70
JMU... 64
UMass.. 64
Maine... 61
Towson.. 58
Hofstra... 55

[DetroitFlyer]

The University of Dayton provides need based aid AND we report graduation rates. For football, we are at 96%!

[DetroitFlyer]

Davidson - 100%!!:hurray:

Valparaiso - 90%

Butler - 84%

San Diego - 83%

Drake - 79%

Jacksonville - 47%

Morehead State - 36%

[Pard4Life]

The Ivy League never discloses their graduation rate.. surprised you did not know this LFN.

[Peems]

but of course they all graduate...

[Lehigh Football Nation]

The Ivy League never discloses their graduation rate.. surprised you did not know this LFN.

To clarify, they disclose the overall graduation rate, just not the rates for athletics.

Other non-schollies (Dayton, PFL schools) and grant-in-aid's (Patriot) do. Yet the Ivies do not. Is there something they are hiding? :eyebrow:

If it's not a big deal or it's 100% or whatever, why not disclose? Just saying "it's over 90%, don't worry about it" isn't good enough - especially if the folks running the Knight Commission are Ivy graduates. Shouldn't their alma maters be held to the same yardstick as everyone else?

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

The "Gentleman's C"!

Of course it's going to be over 90%!

[UNHWILDCATS05]

The "Gentleman's C"!

Of course it's going to be over 90%!
I wouldn't be surprised if it was 98%-99%... Ivy schools will do anything to make sure their students stay in school... most notoriously, MASS grade inflation...

[crunifan]

The Gateway:

1)UNI- 83%
2)Indiana State- 80%
3)SIU- 78%
4)Illinois State- 74%
5)Western Illinois- 74%
6)Youngstown State- 67%
7)Missouri State- ***

[*****]

good post LFN

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Thanks Ralph, Glad you're back and doing FCS waves again! :hurray:

It looks like talking about this opens up the "grade inflation" can of worms - that seems to be the feeling on this board. Sounds like a good assessment to me. It also doesn't seem to me that anyone is taking the Knight commission to task over this. (Sounds like a future blog posting to me.)

In my mind, the Knight commission is an important lobbying group that meets in Washington, DC and has an effect on the NCAA. They post press releases that get picked up by the USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2007-01-22-recruiting-panel_x.htm) and major news organizations.

Especially rich is this Fall 2006 essay (http://www.knightcommission.org/images/uploads/RecruitingEssayKnight.pdf) that talks about "transparency in recruiting". You can find drivel like this in there:


Just as parents often begin worrying about the college choice of children even before middle school, athletes often grow up in a limited culture, one that constantly reinforces the idea that sports is the only route to college or any other success.

This isn't only hyperventilating, this is a powerful lobbying group saying these things that have the ears of congressmen and women and the NCAA. Yet I don't see the co-chair, a Harvard graduate, talk about Harvard's own role in making Harvard a goal for children "before middle school" - nor are their OWN recruitment or NCAA statistics transparent.