test table
SCHOOL Pct. adm. Pct. Top 10 American 53 48 Army NA 72 Bucknell 33 71 Colgate 28 70 Holy Cross 34 64 Lafayette 37 62 Lehigh 39 62 Navy NA 54 Source: The College Board
Another quantitative comparison is average SAT scores of incoming freshmen. Again, American ranks below the rest of the league. Here are the numbers:SCHOOL Math Crit. Rdg. American 603 620 Army 641 627 Bucknell 666 636 Colgate 675 666 Holy Cross 629 631 Lafayette 665 620 Lehigh 671 631 Navy 670 648 Source: Princeton Review
As for your arguments that AU's low graduation rates are reflective of the old regime in basketball, that ignores the fact that AU's lower graduation rate spans the entire school and runs across the whole athletic department. AU's overall graduation rate of 71 percent is 14 percent below the next lowest school in the league (Lehigh - 85 percent) and its student athlete graduation rate is also the lowest in the league. AU is the only school that graduates less than 80 percent of its student athletes (56 percent).
The difference in graduation rates between all students and student athletes at every other school in the league is less than 10 percent. Two schools -- Bucknell and Lehigh -- actually have higher grad rates for student athletes than the student body as a whole and the difference between all students and student athletes at Colgate and Lafayette is 2 percent. Holy Cross has a 9 percent difference; American's difference is 15 percent. Here are those numbers:SCHOOL All SA American 71 56 Army NA NA Bucknell 88 90 Colgate 91 89 Holy Cross 91 82 Lafayette 90 88 Lehigh 85 86 Navy NA NA Source: 2006 NCAA Division I GSR Data
Breaking it down by sport, American has seven different sports that reported grad rates below 90 percent in the latest study. No other school had more than three sports below 90 percent. Adding significance to the difference is the fact that AU offers fewer sports than any of the other league members.
Now nobody is arguing American is not a fine school, or that it does not belong in the league. And we have heard reports the school is working to improve the academic rankings of its athletes. Hopefully, as you suggest, future graduation success rates will reflect that.
We have no bias against American. Without a doubt, from a competition standpoint, AU has been a fine addition to the league. Jeff Jones is great to work with from a media standpoint -- frank, quotable, cooperative-- and word around the league is that his staff is both well-respected and well-liked by other staffs in the conference.
Our point was simply that if your hire is supposed to reflect your "commitment to the twin values of academic and athletics achievement," you don't bring in a guy from a school with a spotty academic record. The way to send that message is to hire someone who comes from a place that at least can boast an average graduation rate.
