Arne Duncan, the U.S. Department of Education Secretary, wrote a very persuasive piece today for ESPN.com.
Duncan, who played basketball at Harvard, believes that it is imperative that colleges and universities should have to graduate 40 percent of their student athletes to be eligible for postseason participation.
This is in the wake of the report that came out around the start of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament that indicated that there were some schools participating in this tournament that have not graduated any players recently.
The way that the NCAA calculates graduation rates is by giving student athletes a six year window to complete their bachelor's degree. Transfer out of a program and departures for early entry into professional leagues do not count against a team provided that the student athlete was in good academic standing at the time.
Look, I think Duncan's heart is in the right place.
But I fail to see how it is fair to ban current players for the sins of past players.
It's like when the NCAA implements a postseason ban to a current team for transgressions of previous administrations. What did the current players have to do with someone who was on the team over a cycle ago?
If, for example, I am a freshman on the Cal Bears right now, why should I have been banned because no one from the 2005 team has received their degree under former coach Ben Braun?
I guess that's a life lesson that Duncan and the NCAA can teach these athletes. As Scar from the Lion King said, "Life's not fair, is it?"
Look, I do think that reform is necessary in intercollegiate athletics. On many levels in the revenue sports, the dollar signs have taken over and that romantic, quaint notion of the student athlete in his varsity jacket, carrying a stack of textbooks under one arm has faded into that Norman Rockwell past.
The problem I have, though, is with the fact that some of these student athletes come to college not prepared to be there at all. That is the broken part of the system.
Just because you (or someone you pay) can take the S.A.T. and you receive your diploma from high school doesn't mean that you're prepared for college. It just doesn't.
There are countless tales of illiteracy among student athletes in college courses. Guys who can't read or write in English composition classes or in need of education in rudimentary math skills like addition and subtraction.
The system is set up to provide them with a means to an end: They go to college because they have to, not because they want to.
It's a miracle to keep some of the student athletes eligible, let alone on a path to graduation.
The emphasis on reform the intercollegiate athletic process needs to filter down to the middle and high schools. That's where the system, from my perspective, breaks down.
I would even go as far as to say that the AAU should require academic standards for participation.
No grades? No travel teams. No showcase games during the summer.
No grades? You don't get to go to the skills camps.
Make education matter long before they get to college.
Because you aren't necessarily going to flip the switch for motivation once they arrive.
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