Although the Cavaliers' run in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament came to an end this weekend, the team saw its tournament run extended in a competition for the top graduation rates.
The University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport as well as Inside Higher Ed ranked the University among the top 10 NCAA Tournament teams in terms of basketball players' graduation rates at their respective colleges and universities.
Forty-one of the 65 teams competing in the men's tournament graduated more than half of the basketball players who entered their institutions between 1996 and 1999. The University graduated 85 percent of its players who entered its basketball program during this period.
Using the NCAA-derived "Graduation Success Rate," the institute's survey considered students who transferred to other colleges or left to play in the NBA as graduates, as long as they were in good academic standing when they left school, said Richard Lapchick, author of the report and director of the institute.
Four colleges graduated 100 percent of their basketball teams using the GSR -- College of the Holy Cross, Davidson College, the University of Florida and Weber State University.
The institute and Inside Higher Ed structured their analyses of the tournament teams differently, which contributed to the University's different placements in the respective rankings.
"We followed it through the bracket, tongue in cheek to some extent," Inside Higher Ed editor Doug Lederman said. "We advanced the team that had the best graduation rate, whereas the survey looked at the schools with the highest graduation rates that weren't necessarily playing each other."
Using this method, Inside Higher Ed ranked the University among the Final Four in the tournament. While the Cavaliers may not have out-ranked all teams that competed in the Big Dance, they did achieve success in graduating more players than the University at Albany, Long Beach State University, Xavier University and Stanford University.
Analysis found that the graduation rate of black student athletes, however, often differed significantly from that of their white counterparts. Nineteen schools graduated 70 percent or more of their black players using GSR.
Contrary to this reported discrepancy between graduating white and black student athletes, the University boasts one of the highest graduation rates for black student athletes, said Jon Oliver, senior associate athletics director for administration.
"The discrepancy between [white and black students] is 85 percent for white student [athletes] and 71 percent of black student [athletes]," Oliver said. "Our 71 percent is fairly high for all of the other schools in this report."
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