Thought you guys would like this: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed...s/2003/12/19/bowl_pick_a_loser_at_graduation/
This article has been publically refuted on numerous occasions. The writer extracted data from a period in Sooner football history that was pretty abysmil; i.e., the Howard Schnellenburger & John Blake eras. O.U. was just awarded the trophy signifying the highest graduation rates for all sports in the Big 12 (74% I believe) & the highest graduation rate for Big 12 football (63% I believe). We're no different from most big time programs in that we can always do a better job in ensuring that our student-athletes are just that, students first & athletes second, but the progress we've made since Joe Castiglione became our AD has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Old Numbers, LSU's numbers are higher as well. Also "graduation rates" do not take into account tranfers and juniors who leave for the NFL.
God knows almost all schools except a few have to do better than they are and it looks like the top schools will be leading the way as Stoops, Saban, Carroll, etc. have made it more of a priority than ever before but these guys that write these kind of stories are the same types that want sports to be downgraded in the university systems and have an axe to grind. They really believe that sports programs take away from a university instead of helping it, they don't understand that without football there wouldn't be many of the things at colleges throughout the country have as the Football programs are the main reason many of the alumni put money back in to their school. And LSU's athletic program funneled 100's of millions of dollars into the academic and administrative departments in the last decade. I still would be willing to bet that if a completely non biased study was performed by people at a college like LSU they would find that athletes graduate at a higher clip that ALL incoming freshmen do. IMO!
What makes LSU look bad is the most up-to-date stats only include DiNardo recruits over the next year or two Saban recruits will slowly get into the stats.
Besides the fact that these numbers reflect a snapshot that may or may not be relevant, they never include the success transfers or those who simply drop out of participation. If you leave, you're counted against the standard. This can be a real poor reflection on a sport like basketball, where there is a small base of recruits to begin with. A couple of years ago, one of Kelvin Sampson's classes was shown to have a zero graduation rate; when, in fact, one guy transfered & graduated from Boston College, one guy dropped out & utlimately graduated from O.U., & one guy dropped out & was still in school & progressing towards his degree but outside the 6 year timeframe used by the NCAA. Had these guys been included, I think it would have put us at a 90% rate.
