Patriot League Graduation Rates

[bison137]

NCAA just released the latest figures on graduation rates for athletes. Patriot League football teams had the following graduation rates for the two different methodologies - (1) NCAA "graduation success rate"; and (2) federal graduation rate (which penalizes teams for players transferring out):

Team//NCAA GSR//Federal Rate

Bucknell 91%//86%
Colgate 90%//82%
Fordham 82%//69%
Georgetown 97%//96%
Holy Cross 94%//78%
Lafayette 93%//77%
Lehigh 91%//70%

I'd be very surprised if these aren't the highest graduation rates for any FCS or FBS schools reporting to the NCAA.


BTW, here are the comparable PL men's basketball graduation rates:

Army 96%/--
Bucknell 100%/90%
Colgate 93%/88
Holy Cross 100%/80
Lafayette 100%/73
Lehigh 91%/67
Navy 97%/--
American 18%/15%

Even with American's abysmal graduation record, the PL still has the best graduation rate for any conference in men's hoops.

BTW, Fordham's basketball graduation rates are 71%/40% and Georgetown's are 82%/60%.

[TheValleyRaider]

BTW, here are the comparable PL men's basketball graduation rates:
American 18%/15%

18%!?!?! xeekx

Just...wow

[bison137]

18%!?!?! xeekx

Just...wow

They also had 18% in last year's study so at least they're consistent. :)

Note that the NCAA gives athletes six years to graduate, so each study is a little dated. American claims their number will go up over the next couple of years. Hopefully that is accurate.

Jeff Jones now is bringing in mostly Jucos, who don't count in the study anyway.

[brownbear]

They also had 18% in last year's study so at least they're consistent. :)

Note that the NCAA gives athletes six years to graduate, so each study is a little dated. American claims their number will go up over the next couple of years. Hopefully that is accurate.

Jeff Jones now is bringing in mostly Jucos, who don't count in the study anyway.

Even then, how did it get that low?

Too many players leaving early for the NBA!!

[carney2]

I don't understand how the "federal graduation rate (which penalizes for transfers out)" is calculated. Can you clarify?

[TheValleyRaider]

Too many players leaving early for the NBA!!

From American? xeyebrowx xlolx

[bison137]

I don't understand how the "federal graduation rate (which penalizes for transfers out)" is calculated. Can you clarify?

Without getting too technical, here is an example of how the two methods might vary. Assume a team over a four year period has 13 freshmen enter the school - 10 of whom graduate, 2 of whom transfer to another school in good academic standing, and 1 who never graduates.

Under the NCAA "graduation success rate" methodology, the school would get credit for graduating 10 out of 11 (i.e. 89%) since the transfers (assuming they transferred while in good academic standing) don't go into the calculation. Under the federal formula, the school's graduation rate would be 10/13, or 77%.

Note that transfers into a college also count in the NCAA formula, so if the above college had also had 2 athletes transfer in and ultimately graduate, its GSR would be 12/13 or 92%. In some cases, that can give a school a relatively easy boost to its graduation rate since an incoming transfer may be 50% or even 75% of the way to a degree and also his maturity and ability to stay out of trouble is easier to judge.

Proponents of the federal formula might argue that that measurement, by counting outgoing transfers against a school, reflects how often schools are recruiting athletes who are bad fits, as well as how many academic rejects they take in. If the federal number is really low, there may be some validity in that position, although it certainly doesn't mean much if an occasional person transfers out.

[RadMann]

Below is the link for those interested. Just choose your school by the key letter and the rates for all sports will appear on a report for your school:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4j3CQXJgFjGpvqRqC KO6AKGph4QIUNTb31fj_zcVH1v_QD9gtzQ0IhyR0UA8vsL0A!!/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvUUd3QndNQSEvNElVRS82XzBfTFU!?CONTENT_URL=h ttp://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics_and_athletes/education_and_research/academic_reform/gsr/2007/d1_school_gsr_data.html

[JoltinJoe]

Fordham's graduation rate has slid due to coaching changes resulting in a number of transfers. When Fordham named Derreck Whittenburg as its basketball coach, almost all the players recruited by Bob Hill transferred (only two players stayed). Similarly, a number of football players transferred when Tom Masella was named football coach.

Nick Marcarchuk was the Fordham coach for 12 seasons and Fordham had one of the highest graduation rates in Division I basketball.

The programs with have the highest graduation rates tend to retain their coaches for extended runs. I hope we can keep Whittenburg and Masella in place for a long time as that bodes well now just for W-Ls but for graduation rates too.

[DetroitFlyer]

Well, some schools in the PFL are doing OK, while others.... All the numbers below are GSR. There are not any "Fed Rate" data reported for any PFL school.



1. Davidson - 99%

2. Dayton - 94%

3. Valparaiso - 90%

4. Butler - 85%

5. San Diego - 82%

6. Drake - 74%

7. Jacksonville - 47%

8. Morehead State - 36%

[Franks Tanks]

Without getting too technical, here is an example of how the two methods might vary. Assume a team over a four year period has 13 freshmen enter the school - 10 of whom graduate, 2 of whom transfer to another school in good academic standing, and 1 who never graduates.

Under the NCAA "graduation success rate" methodology, the school would get credit for graduating 10 out of 11 (i.e. 89%) since the transfers (assuming they transferred while in good academic standing) don't go into the calculation. Under the federal formula, the school's graduation rate would be 10/13, or 77%.

Note that transfers into a college also count in the NCAA formula, so if the above college had also had 2 athletes transfer in and ultimately graduate, its GSR would be 12/13 or 92%. In some cases, that can give a school a relatively easy boost to its graduation rate since an incoming transfer may be 50% or even 75% of the way to a degree and also his maturity and ability to stay out of trouble is easier to judge.

Proponents of the federal formula might argue that that measurement, by counting outgoing transfers against a school, reflects how often schools are recruiting athletes who are bad fits, as well as how many academic rejects they take in. If the federal number is really low, there may be some validity in that position, although it certainly doesn't mean much if an occasional person transfers out.


I somewhat understand the federal methology for tracking transfers, but people transfer for so many reasons, mostly non-academic realted, that it seems like a skewed number. For example by the federal standard if you have two basketball players transfer because they feel they have no chance at playing time you are then penalized. These playeres could have transferred to an equally academically challenging D-III school, they just wanted to play -- and now the original instititions grad rate looks mediocre.

[BlueHen86]

Well, some schools in the PFL are doing OK, while others.... All the numbers below are GSR. There are not any "Fed Rate" data reported for any PFL school.
What are you guys trying to hide?xlolx

Where are your transfers?




"Soylent Green is PFL transfers!"

[Catsfan2]

I see that the CAA-football stacks up pretty well. The "underperformers" in CAA FB grad rates are Maine, URI, UMass, JMU, and suprisingly Hofstra, who's rate is woeful. The other seven schools are well over 80% with several in the 90s.

[DetroitFlyer]

PFL transfers...? Maybe you have to be on an athletic scholarship for the transfer to count against a team? I noticed that our, ( Dayton's), non-scholarship women's rowing team also did not have a "Fed Rate". Our scholarship teams, however, all have a number for "Fed Rate".

[danefan]

NEC:


Albany 67/50
CCSU 33/20
Monmouth 67/44
Sacred Heart 71/63
St. Francis 50/50
Wagner 75/56
RMU 100/?

[WMTribe90]

WM 96/89

[carney2]

For you Patsy Leaguers who are thumpng your chests and feeling proud, just remember that time wounds all heels (?). I seem to remember that one of the arguments being used to promote basketball scholarships at Lafayette was that the multi-year graduation rate for men's and women's basketball combined was something like 55%, 55 freakin' percent!!!!! Since the study being quoted in this thread is for the period 1997 - 2000, I would expect that in at least one case there is some bad news lurking just around the corner.

[Go...gate]

NCAA just released the latest figures on graduation rates for athletes. Patriot League football teams had the following graduation rates for the two different methodologies - (1) NCAA "graduation success rate"; and (2) federal graduation rate (which penalizes teams for players transferring out):

Team//NCAA GSR//Federal Rate

Bucknell 91%//86%
Colgate 90%//82%
Fordham 82%//69%
Georgetown 97%//96%
Holy Cross 94%//78%
Lafayette 93%//77%
Lehigh 91%//70%

I'd be very surprised if these aren't the highest graduation rates for any FCS or FBS schools reporting to the NCAA.


BTW, here are the comparable PL men's basketball graduation rates:

Army 96%/--
Bucknell 100%/90%
Colgate 93%/88
Holy Cross 100%/80
Lafayette 100%/73
Lehigh 91%/67
Navy 97%/--
American 18%/15%

Even with American's abysmal graduation record, the PL still has the best graduation rate for any conference in men's hoops.

BTW, Fordham's basketball graduation rates are 71%/40% and Georgetown's are 82%/60%.

Ye Gods! And American reportedly made a heavy-duty commitment to the PL to upgrade their grad rates to a level comparable to the rest of the conference. This was supposed to be consistent with AU's long-term strategic plan, which seeks to make the school slightly small but much more competitive and selective in terms of admissions.

[bison137]

Ye Gods! And American reportedly made a heavy-duty commitment to the PL to upgrade their grad rates to a level comparable to the rest of the conference. This was supposed to be consistent with AU's long-term strategic plan, which seeks to make the school slightly small but much more competitive and selective in terms of admissions.


Remember that this four-year study encompasses players who entered from 96-97 to 99-00. If they stayed on a normal 4-year track, the last group would be expected to graduate by 2003. (Given six years to graduate, everyone is done by 2005.) Thus the data for American consists 100% of players recruited under the prior regime and before they entered the Patriot League. Let's hope it gets better.

BTW, with Jeff Jones bringing in mostly Juco's, that may help since they are already halfway to a degree before they even walk onto campus.

[Go...gate]

In any event, glad to see this issue is getting so much attention these days! :)