March Madness is in full swing and with any luck your bracket picks have been brilliant. I'm not a basketball expert, but I decided that the nation's annual celebration of college basketball could provide a teaching moment for all college-bounds teenagers.
Except for my alma mater (University of Missouri), which got tossed out early, I'm not too interested in the tournament's winners and losers. I am, however, interested in how many basketball players are graduating.
There are huge differences in the graduation rates among the colleges and universities participating in the NCAA basketball tournament, according to an annual report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. Among the men's teams, 100 percent of the players from seven universities earned a bachelor's degree. In contrast, the worst grad record belongs to the University of Arizona, where only 20 percent of the players leave with a degree.
[See how top academic institutions fared in last year's tournament.]
The women basketball players are clearly the superior students. One hundred percent of the women players at 23 schools managed to graduate. The worst performing honors belong to Hampton University, where just half of the women earn degrees.
When measured by graduation stats, here are the records of the best and worst March Madness teams:
Best Graduation Rates for Men's Teams*
| School Name | Graduation Rate |
|---|---|
| Belmont University | 100% |
| Brigham Young University | 100% |
| University of Illinois | 100% |
| University of Notre Dame | 100% |
| Utah State University | 100% |
| Villanova University | 100% |
| Wofford College | 100% |
| Vanderbilt University | 93% |
| Xavier University | 92% |
| University of Arkansas—Little Rock | 92% |
| Bucknell University | 91% |
| Marquette University | 91% |
| Boston University | 90% |
| University of North Carolina | 88% |
| Penn State University | 86% |
* Princeton University would presumably make this list, but Ivy League schools do not report their graduation rates.
Worst Graduation Rates for Men's Teams
| School Name | Graduation Rate |
|---|---|
| University of Arizona | 20% |
| University of Alabama—Birmingham | 25% |
| University of Connecticut | 31% |
| Temple University | 33% |
| University of Michigan | 36% |
| University of Georgia | 36% |
| University of Akron | 38% |
| Kansas State University | 40% |
| University of Tennessee | 40% |
| University of Texas | 42% |
| University of Southern California | 42% |
| Morehead State University | 43% |
| University of Florida | 44% |
| University of Kentucky | 44% |
| University of Missouri | 44% |
| University of Washington | 44% |
Schools with 100% Grad Rates for Women's Teams
Worst Graduation Rates for Women's Teams
| School Name | Graduation Rate |
|---|---|
| Hampton University | 50% |
| Louisiana Tech University | 56% |
| Prairie View A&M University | 57% |
| Texas A&M University | 65% |
| Stetson University | 67% |
| University of Maryland | 67% |
| West Virginia University | 70% |
| James Madison University | 71% |
| Purdue University | 71% |
| Temple University | 71% |
So what do graduation records of basketball players have to do with high school students? When teenagers and families are evaluating college possibilities they should always check each school's graduation rates.
In addition to usnews.com, a great place to find the grad rates of colleges and universities is College Results Online, which is a service of The Education Trust.
Reader Comments Read all comments (2)
brian of KS 3:29PM May 09, 2012
Don Fronzaglia of MA 12:14PM April 04, 2011