The grades are in and, for the most part, Baltimore-area colleges have a lot to be proud of with the graduation rates of their student-athletes.
At the top of that list is the Naval Academy, which graduated 100 percent of its athletes in 16 of 19 sports for freshmen entering the service academy between 1996 and 1999, according to graduation success rates released by the NCAA last week. No sport at Navy had a GSR below 97 percent.
Rates like that are expected from the highly intelligent men and women who enter the service academy to prepare for a military career, but other area schools dispelled the notion of most athletes being “dumb jocks.”
All those on the Towson women?s basketball, women?s soccer, volleyball, men?s golf, gymnastics and women?s tennis teams included in the statistics graduated. Also, while a lot has been said regarding the poor win-loss record of the Tigers? men?s basketball team over the last decade, no one can take away the fact that 88 percent of its players graduated, far above the 57-percent average for that sport.
“Towson has had a tradition of recruiting quality student-athletes, and I think this report verifies that claim,” Towson athletic director Mike Hermann said. “I also have to credit the coaches who understand what a student-athlete is supposed to be and recruit those that are serious about getting their degrees.”
The same can be said about the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where 94 percent of men?s lacrosse, 95 percent of women?s lacrosse and more than 70 percent of basketball players left campus with degrees in their hands.
“I think this report shows that we are doing quite well with the careful selection of our student-athletes,” UMBC A.D. Charles Brown said. “Also, our coaches and academic support staff are doing a good job selling the importance of ahigher education.”
But the statistics also revealed some upsetting trends, especially in College Park, where only 18 percent of Maryland?s men?s basketball players graduated. That figure was the worst among schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The argument could be made that players leaving early to pursue pro careers negatively skew those numbers, but other ACC schools during the same period dealt with the same problems. Clemson had the next-lowest GSR at 25 percent, followed by Georgia Tech (42) and N.C. State (64). The ACC average GSR was 63.25 percent.
To be fair, Maryland?s overall GSR was 76 percent for the second straight year, including 10 teams that graduated all of their student-athletes during the period under examination. That figure represents a large increase from the Terps? 54-percent GSR in 1993. Additionally, Maryland?s overall rate has been greater than 60 percent in 10 of the last 12 years.
“There is no greater priority for our department than helping our student-athletes achieve their academic goals,” Maryland A.D. Deborah A. Yow said in a statement. “We have made it a departmental priority to continue to improve in this area. Our unwavering goal is to have graduation rates for student-athletes at 70 percent or higher on a consistent basis.”
Ron Snyder is a staff writer for The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
