Nation’s Top College Football Programs Have a Poor Record in Graduating Their Black Players

Next month 10 universities will be sending their football teams to Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games which will net each participating school about $15 million in revenues. While these 10 universities are the cream of the crop of this year’s football teams, JBHE wondered how these teams rate in graduating their black football players.

The overall answer is not very well with two notable exceptions. The graduation rate for black football players at Wake Forest University is a very high 90 percent. At the University of Notre Dame, 78 percent of all black football players earn their diplomas within six years of entering the university.

At the eight other universities sending teams to this year’s BCS games, the graduation rate for black football players is under 50 percent. This includes teams from such academically high-ranked institutions as the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California.

At both Boise State University and Louisiana State University, fewer than 30 percent of the black football players go on to earn a diploma.

Remember, too, that football players on all these teams are on athletic scholarships. So money is not a factor in their inability to earn a diploma.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.