The 65 men’s basketball teams competing in the NCAA tournament fared better in the classroom than last year’s tournament field. However, “the continuing disparity between the academic success of African-American and white student-athletes is deeply troubling,” according to a University of Central Florida study released today.
The analysis by Richard Lapchick, director of UCF’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, found that 84 percent of white men’s basketball student-athletes and 56 percent of African-American men’s basketball student athletes from the tournament schools graduated. The good news is that’s an increase of six and two percentage points respectively. Despite those gains, however, the “persistent gap between African-American and white students” grew larger.
To continue reading about the report and see which schools had 100 percent graduation rates for men’s basketball student athletes, click here.