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Wally Hall (sports editor of the AR Democrat-Gazette) recently had his annual Duke-bashing article. In it, he was a bit derisive about Duke's graduation rate for basketball players (69% iirc). This bugged me for a while, and the problem with the number hit me yesterday: transfers count against graduation rates, right? If this is correct, then Taylor King, Jamal Boykin, Olek Czyz, and Eric Boateng will ultimately count against Coach K's graduation rate. I'll go out on a limb and guess that Gerald Henderson didn't graduate either. Can someone clarify how these rates are determined and why the current men's basketball graduation rate is low? (although higher than lots of places....)

The following was part of an article in the Washington Post during the 2010 Final four "run." That's the best I can do for right now, but I think the figures are pretty accurate.

Among the No. 1 seeds, Duke has a 92 percent graduation success rate, followed by Kansas (73 percent), Syracuse (55 percent) and Kentucky (31 percent).

pinkbend wrote:The following was part of an article in the Washington Post during the 2010 Final four "run." That's the best I can do for right now, but I think the figures are pretty accurate.

Among the No. 1 seeds, Duke has a 92 percent graduation success rate, followed by Kansas (73 percent), Syracuse (55 percent) and Kentucky (31 percent).

Thanks pinkbend! I thought that the numbers cited by Hall were a bit low.

I have the entire article on graduation stats from the Washington Post, but I can't post it. Every time I post it I get a General Error message. If anyone is interested in the article, please tell me how to post it!!!!

I think this is the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03309.html One important piece of information that I believe accounts for the different numbers: "The statistics cited in the study were the NCAA's Graduation Success Rates, which -- unlike federal graduation rates -- do not penalize schools for transfer students that leave in good academic standing."

I searched for the study cited in that article and found the website of the organization that puts out the report cited; tons of great info here: http://www.tidesport.org/ncaagraduationrates.html

Aaaaaaall the data at the NCAA's site: http://bit.ly/91sdtA

gadzooks wrote:"The statistics cited in the study were the NCAA's Graduation Success Rates, which -- unlike federal graduation rates -- do not penalize schools for transfer students that leave in good academic standing."

Well, for once, the way the NCAA does it makes more sense (although "better than the federal government" isn't much of a victory). Why should Duke be penalized for students who make their own decision to transfer to another institution? And anyway, the vast majority of our transfers out have exhausted their eligibility at other high-quality institutions: McCaffrey to Vandy, Boykin to Cal, King to Villanova, etc. I'd be willing to bet their eventual graduation rate is pretty high, especially when you consider the extra year they have when sitting out under transfer rules.

Gadzooks is a posting genius! Thanks so much for the links!