Athletics

Academic March Madness

Ron Tang — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:36:00 -0400

If you've watched any of the televised men's college basketball tournament this year, you've been bombarded by NCAA commercials that declare: "There are 380,000 NCAA student athletes... and just about every one of them will go pro in something other than sports."

It's an uplifting tagline, but there's a catch. In order to "go pro in something other than sports," that athlete needs a college degree. And far too many male athletes in top-tier Division I basketball programs never graduate.

The teams that played in the Sweet 16 this year have some of the worst academic records in the country, particularly the… more

Lindsey Luebchow in Cleveland Plain Dealer | DC Group Ranks NCAA Teams by Players' Graduation Rates

Communications — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:28:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Cleveland Plain Dealer | Washington Group Ranks NCAA Teams by Players' Graduation Rates

Forget wins and losses. Disregard the strength of schedule. Pay no attention to margins of victory.

Call it March madness, but what if the teams in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament were ranked by diplomas rather than dunks?

That's a rite the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation celebrates each spring. Earlier this week, the nonprofit public policy institute released its own tournament bracket that has to do more with mastering Joyce than making jump shots.

The foundation, an advocate for greater equity in school funding and college financial aid, uses the big-time tournament to underscore a big-time problem: A majority of players leave college with neither a professional career nor a four-year degree. In all, 55 percent of Division I players do not graduate. About 1 percent of them make it to the NBA.

"Amid the flashy, commercialized spectacle that is March Madness, few think about the players who aren't going to be able to go pro in anything, basketball or otherwise," said policy analyst Lindsey Luebchow, who created the bracket. . .

To view the New America Foundation's Academic Sweet 16 bracket, go to Higher Ed Watch.Org.

Lindsey Luebchow on WTOP Radio in DC | Top B-Ball Shools Have Poor Grad Rates

Communications — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:11:00 -0400

New America in the News:

WTOP Radio in DC | Top B-Ball Shools Have Poor Grad Rates

New America Foundation Education Policy Analyst Lindsey Luebchow discussed the Annual Academic Sweet Sixteen bracket results with WTOP Radio in DC. Also, Luebchow's comments on the NCAA teams' academic ranking appeared on CBS Radio's nationally broadcast morning show (3/27/08). Following these hits, the Los Angeles Times published Luebchow's op-ed "Academic March Madness."

Lindsey Luebchow writes for New America's Ed Money Watch and Higher Ed Watch blogs.

Minority Recruitment: Athletics Success, Admissions Failure

Education Policy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:14:00 -0500

Diversity and minority recruitment are hot button words in most four year college admissions offices. There are congratulations when enrollment demographics show greater racial diversity, and there is consternation when minority numbers drop.

But are college admissions office recruitment efforts working? Colleges will, in a knee-jerk fashion, say: yes, look at our racial and ethnic percentages! College access for minorities is a reality here! But how much is minority recruitment in admissions offices really contributing to the diversity of college campuses?

Unfortunately, at some Division I schools, not much. The black-white diversity on many campuses is not… more

Who Will be Fired First: Al Lord or Isiah Thomas?

Education Policy — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:09:00 -0500

They may share little more in common than the name Lord, but Isiah Lord Thomas (his given name), the much-maligned general manager and coach of the New York Knicks, and Al Lord, the oft-criticized Chief Executive Officer and former Chairman of Sallie Mae, are sitting on seats hot enough to make Mount St. Helen's seem cool. With that in mind, Higher Ed Watch takes a look at the two leaders to assess which Lord will be shown the door first.

The Tale of the Tape

College Football PR 101: Academic Bonuses

Education Policy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:48:00 -0500

When Louisiana State University coach Les Miles was carried off the field after winning the National Championship game last night, his smile likely reflected more than the pure joy of winning. Miles had already garnered $400,000 in football bonuses for making it to the game. After winning the title, his contract states that his total salary will be adjusted to at least the third-highest salary in all of Division I football— which will boost it by about $1.15 million more than he’s currently making.

That’s quite an incentive to win on… more

When Redshirting Goes Wrong: Boston College Fans Take Note

Education Policy — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:20:00 -0500

The professionalization of college athletics is a thorny issue, one that we addressed in a recent blog post on Boston College’s current football team. We pointed out that many of the elite players on BC’s football team this year, such as star quarterback Matt Ryan, are no longer really students because they have already graduated and are spending minimal time in the classroom. Without the "student" part of student-athlete, we argued, these football players become exclusively money-making and media-attracting devices for their school and skirt the line between college and professional sports.

The reaction from BC… more

Lindsey Luebchow in The Modesto Bee on Academic BCS

Communications — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:55:00 -0500

New America in the News:
...Since coming into existence in 1906, the NCAA has struggled with its basic charter -- identifying and maintaining the correct balance between athletics and academics.

In recent years, the NCAA has established the Academic Progress Rate (APR), which creates a baseline measurement of retention and graduation rates its member schools must meet or risk the forfeiture of scholarships.

One might question the logic of taking away scholarships from underachieving athletic programs, but that's another matter.

And obviously, we'll never see a scenario in which an academic test becomes a part of an athletic event -- such as the hypothetical case above -- but at least one Washington think tank would like to see classroom performance have a bearing on which schools are in line to receive multi-million dollar Bowl Championship Series payoffs.

"In general, athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student population," said Lindsey Luebchow, a policy analyst at the non-profit New America Foundation. "In general, student-athletes are doing a good job, but football and basketball are different stories."

Luebchow also is [a contributor] of Higher Ed Watch, a respected blog. Recently, she was asked by ESPN.com to develop a way to measure the academic performance of BCS teams and came up with a system that goes well beyond the NCAA's APR.

She chose to add or subtract points based on the team's graduation rate when compared to that of the school, and rewarded or penalized a team for a high disparity between graduation rates of black and white athletes, again measured against the school's general population.

Yes, the race issue.

"A lot of students are being recruited for athletics that are not prepared for college, having come from places that do not put a priority on education," Luebchow said. "But once these students are admitted, the schools have the responsibility to make sure these students have access to the tools necessary to leave with a degree."

Luebchow applied her math and on Tuesday released her re-ranking of the 25 teams listed in the most recent BCS standings, throwing out on-field performance. Her academic national championship game?

Let us all yawn in unison. It's No. 1 Boston College against No. 2 Cincinnati. ...

For the complete article, please follow this link.

Evaluating Jock Majors and College Quality

Education Policy — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:37:00 -0500

Yesterday, Higher Ed Watch unveiled its first "Academic Bowl Championship Series" poll, which ranked the current top teams in college football using academic instead of athletic indicators. In developing the Academic BCS poll, we took advantage of all of the data that is publicly available on college athletes’ academic performance: graduation rates and the NCAA’s "Academic Progress Rates."

That’s right, there are only two academic data points available for college athletes (with graduation rates disaggregated by race). To see all of the data we used for our Academic BCS formula, more

ESPN Features Academic Bowl Championship Series, Lindsey Luebchow

Communications — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:31:00 -0500

New America in the News:

In a few days, hooded figures manipulating mysterious computer formulas will announce the final BCS standings and the lineup for college football's prestigious bowl games. Records, opponents, conference affiliations, polls and, it always seems, the phases of the moons of Saturn will be taken into account. But what if academics were factored in, too? What if there were an A/BCS -- an Academics-Included Bowl Championship Series?

I put that question to Lindsey Luebchow, a policy analyst of the New America Foundation and a contributor to Higher Ed Watch, one of the country's best blogs. Luebchow relentlessly dissects hypocrisy, double-talk and yammer in higher education, especially the big colleges' relationships to Congress. She is also a sports nut, and annually computes what the men's basketball Sweet 16 would look like based on educational achievement. So I asked her to do the same for the top 25 BCS teams.

Appropriately, Luebchow came up with a ratings procedure that's hard to understand -- just like the real BCS! Her reasoning: "The A/BCS formula starts with the football team's four-class average federal graduation rate, which includes all football players who entered college between 1997 and 2000 and graduated within six years. Football programs then earn or lose points based on three criteria. First, the gap between the graduation rate of the team and the overall school. Second, the gap between the black-white graduation rate disparity on the team and at the overall school. Third, the team's Academic Progress Rate, a measure developed by the NCAA that evaluates how many student-athletes are advancing toward a degree."

Without further ado, here are the big-bowl pairings if academics mattered, with the A/BCS ranking following the school name ...

For those rankings please click here, and visit the ESPN website.