Schools must be responsible for athletes

According to popular belief, athletes at Division I schools are immune to academic rules. The… According to popular belief, athletes at Division I schools are immune to academic rules. The word on the street says that if you’ve got game, you needn’t worry about the grades to match. But the fact remains that college athletes are required to earn passing grades in order to stay active in sports, and if NCAA president Myles Brand gets his way, school presidents will be held accountable to see that they do so.

The incentives/disincentives plan, which is currently in an NCAA study committee, could be placed in front of Division I university presidents in about a year, and their vote will decide its acceptance or rejection. The motivation behind the plan is admirable – reward teams that report strong grades and punish those that don’t – and sounds like a perfectly good idea. But when it comes to student athletes, it’s best to let schools handle their own.

If ratified, the plan would apply to all collegiate sports, but Myles has cited basketball as the worst academically. His remarks are based on graduation rates, an area where basketball programs have consistently suffered in recent years. An NCAA report, released last fall, said that Division I male athletes graduated at a rate of 54 percent, with basketball players as a whole graduating at a lower rate and black basketball players graduating at the lowest rate of all.

Granted, it isn’t a crime to encourage students to graduate. But while the NCAA runs the college athletic scene, colleges must retain control of the academic end, especially since the poor graduation rates among basketball players are also representative of players leaving school early to go pro. If engineering students could leave without a diploma and land high-paying jobs, the statistics would reflect that as well.

Different schools have different standards and the rigors of a given athlete’s education remain the business of the university he or she has chosen to attend. Division I universities are well-established enough to maintain education and sports simultaneously, and do not need the NCAA to act as policeman.

Graham B. Spanier, president of Penn State University, acknowledges that changes need to be made, and notes that those changes begin with the university presidents. “The enemy is us,” he said. “We have the ability to change things. For years, presidents have talked a good line about reform but have not always been able to deliver.”

Poor graduation rates and other discouraging statistics can be reversed without NCAA intervention – universities must take responsibility for their athletes.