By Lindsey Besecker
Assistant Sports Editor
Graduation rates always seem to cause a stir when they are released every year, but NCAA officials are making strides to change the way rates are collected so the results are more accurate.
Officials at the NCAA have begun to rework the criteria for tallying graduation rates and are also looking at incentives and disincentives for schools that do well or struggle with student-athlete graduation rates.
“I favor any kind of program that enhances opportunities for college athletes to graduate,” said Dr. John Watson, Pepperdine’s athletic director. “It’s very healthy that discussions are taking place.”
The original discussions for the incentive-disincentive program took place in April.
Additional scholarships and greater cuts of NCAA playoff payouts are proposed for schools that do well with graduation rates, while schools with poor rates could have scholarships taken away or suffer from postseason bans.
“It would hurt institutions because that reduces their ability to compete on the same level playing field as everyone else,” Watson said. “It will highlight from the national scheme, to coaches in particular, the importance of academics.”
Watson said taking away scholarships would help teams keep students on track to graduating, especially at schools where they may not have the intention of graduating.
A proposal including the incentives program and new ways of measuring the graduation rates will be brought to NCAA officials in April for a vote.
In years past, students who transfer to a new school, leave school early to play professionally or take more than six years to graduate did not count in the graduation rates.
As Watson pointed out, many of those students are in good academic standing but are not considered for the rates, which can bring the numbers down substantially.
The recent graduation rates placed Pepperdine dead last in West Coast Conference standings with a 42 percent graduation rate of students who came in as freshmen in the fall of the 1996-1997 school year.
In those rates, only students who came in on athletic scholarship and graduated from Pepperdine in six years or less were counted.
Watson said that if the new proposals are passed, the rates would be more accurate.
“I definitely think that would help our graduation rates,” Watson said. “We have a number of students who transfer or who go on to play professionally and are in good academic standing (but) count against the rates.”
In the new proposal, students in good academic standing when they leave to play professionally would not count against the graduation rates, and transfer students would not count against the schools they previously attended.
“They’re doing some work on making it clear,” Watson said. “We really want athletes to work toward graduation.”
Steve Rodriguez, head coach for the Pepperdine baseball team, said the baseball team is affected by the draft every year, and the results of that are seen in the graduation rates.
Rodriguez said the revamping of the data-collecting process for graduation rates will be beneficial.
“It’s a great idea because it will allow the look of our school and the look of our academic standing to appear as it is,” Rodriguez said. “These graduation rates always have a way of overlooking the academic progress.”
Rodriguez said a few of the players on his team will not count for graduation rates because they have taken longer than six years to graduate. He knows firsthand what those players go through — he was one himself.
Rodriguez played for Pepperdine beginning in 1989 until he was drafted in 1992.
He played professional baseball for seven years and came back to complete his degree in 2001. Even though he was in good academic standing, he did not count for graduation rates because he took longer than six years to graduate. However, he said the fact that players do come back is a positive thing.
“That’s a testimony to that university, that the athlete still wants to come back to graduate,” he said.
Rodriguez added that junior college transfers and players who are not on scholarship do not count for the rates either.
The only players who do count are the ones on scholarship, but Rodriguez was sure to point out that the ones who do not come in on scholarship are just as important to the team.
“Those guys make our team,” Rodriguez said. “Those guys are why we are successful.”
Both Watson and Rodriguez said no matter what, athletes know that academics come first.
“We make sure they know school is a priority,” Rodriguez said. “They have to do whatever it is they have to do.”
Watson said the Athletics Department offers a variety of programs to help out any student-athlete, regardless of academic standing.
First and foremost, he said he encourages students to become acquainted with the faculty.
“The best approach is getting to know faculty members and utilizing them,” Watson said.
Professors can give progress reports on student-athletes in their classes, but the reports are not mandatory.
The department also offers tutorial services to all student-athletes, not just those who are having difficulty in their classes.
“One should not assume that if they see a study table in the library or somewhere else, that these are people who are struggling,” Watson said.
He added that if there is a student having problems, he or another department member will “motivate them and encourage them to get more focused in their academic pursuits.”
October 30, 2003