ORLANDO, Fla. – The disparity between graduation rates for white and Black college football players at schools headed to bowl games grew slightly this year, according to a study released Monday.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The disparity between graduation rates for white and Black college football players at schools headed to bowl games grew slightly this year, according to a study released Monday.
The annual report by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport also showed overall academic progress. But there were 21 schools that graduated fewer than 50 percent of their Black football players, the study found. That’s up from 19 last year.
Richard Lapchick, the director of the institute, said the widening gap between whites and Blacks was surprising because those numbers had closed in recent years.
“That could be a temporary blip, but it certainly caught me by surprise,” he said. “I think part of it is the urban education system where a lot of the African-American students come from is so depleted. Too many student-athletes recruited from those areas are so far behind when they come to college, it’s difficult to catch up.”
The study was based on NCAA statistics collected from member institutions. The analysis is of the 67 schools that have accepted bowl invitations by Monday.
“There is till room for improvement, but the trends are generally moving in the right direction,” NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said in a statement.
The study showed 57 schools had graduation success rates of 66 percent or higher for white football players, which was more than 2.8 times the number schools with equivalent graduation success rates for Black football players. That’s up from 56 schools last year.
Four schools had graduation success rates for Black football players that exceeded rates for white players – Connecticut (5 percent higher), Troy (7 percent higher), Southern Mississippi (8 percent higher) and Rutgers (4 percent higher). That was down from five schools in last year’s study.
Lapchick said getting more minorities in administrative positions – like head coaches and athletic directors – could help curb the numbers. He also said he will be looking closer at financial issues to see how much, if at all, the economic downturn is affecting the numbers.
While the disparity between whites and Blacks increased, overall progress grew. AP
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