<p>hawkette-going back to your post #62, I believe that you have misunderstood the NCAA data. First of all, the final figure you quoted, that you called the graduation rate for those “exhausting eligibility” is actually the Graduation Success Rate for athletes. According to the notes from the NCAA, that figure excludes athletes who transferred or left or joined the armed services, as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained at school. Here is the quote from the NCAA–which can be found here <a href=“http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics_and_athletes/education_and_research/academic_reform/gsr/index.html[/url]”>http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics_and_athletes/education_and_research/academic_reform/gsr/index.html</a></p>
<p>“The GSR also allows institutions to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained”. </p>
<p>Thus, the GSR is the 6-year graduation rate for athletes who stay at a school and don’t turn pro or transfer out. It should be an extremely high number because the only athletes who don’t graduate are presumably those who (i) flunk out, (ii) transfer out before they can officially flunk out and (iii) take more than six years to graduate.</p>
<p>It cannot be compared to the freshman cohort graduation rates as you have done, because those figures are based on the total number of freshman who enter, versus the total number of freshman who graduate. </p>
<p>By way of example, if 100 freshman enter and 20 transfer out and 5 flunk out, the freshman cohort graduation rate would be 75%. If 20 athletes enter and 5 transfer out but are still academically eligible and 2 flunk out, the Graduation Success Rate for athletes would be 90%. The two numbers really can’t be compared because they’re measuring a different universe of students. The only reasonable comparison would be to determine the GSR for all students. Continuing my example, if 100 freshman enter and 20 transfer out, but only 1 for academic reasons and 5 flunk out (including the 2 athletes), the GSR for all students would be 94% which would be higher than the GSR for athletes.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m misreading the NCAA data, but I don’t think so.</p>