Racial gap persists in grad rates for bowl-bound athletes

Editor’s note: Richard Lapchick is a human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, expert on sports issues, scholar and author.

Now that Michigan has won the national college football championship, it is time to reflect on the academic success of student-athletes. Will they have the education they need to be successful in life?

I have been writing about this for more than four decades. Things have gotten much better over those years. Various academic reforms have helped. In 2022, the overall academic success of college football student-athletes reached an all-time high. The rate remained the same in 2023.

However, when it comes to overall football graduation rates, the average gap between white and Black football student-athletes increased for the 82 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) bowl-bound schools. This has been my greatest concern over the 40 years we have followed this. The results were reported in “Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the Academic Records of the 2022-23 Bowl-Bound College Football Teams,” a study released Tuesday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), which is in the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida. I directed both until my retirement in August 2023.

As the primary author of the study now, Adrien Bouchet, director of TIDES, said the academic success of FBS football student-athletes, as measured by the graduation success rate (GSR), remained at 83% — the same as in 2022.

“The gap between white and Black football student-athletes increased slightly this year, so it continues to be a major issue,” Bouchet said. “The gap this year is 13.2%, up from 11.6% last year. Among the 82 bowl-bound teams, the average GSR for Black football student-athletes is 79.3%, slightly down from 79.5% in 2022. The average GSR for white football student-athletes increased from 91% in 2022 to 92.5% in 2023.”

For the past 10 days, football fans and pundits have focused on the four schools playing for the national championship: Alabama, Michigan, Washington and Texas. Alabama (93%), Michigan (89%), and Washington (84%) had high graduation rates, while Texas had a lower graduation rate (75%).

Except for Texas, each had a gap between white and Black football student-athletes, but they were all better than the national gap. Their Black football student-athletes graduated at rates of 92% at Alabama, 88% at Michigan, 81% at Washington and 68% at Texas, while their white football student-athletes graduated at rates of 94%, 100%, 95%, and 92%, respectively. The 24 percentage point gap for Texas is almost double the national average of 13.2 percentage points.

The national Academic Progress Rate (APR) average among the bowl-bound teams was 71%. All four schools did well with their APR, with Texas again behind the others. APRs for the four schools were Alabama 995, Michigan 987, Washington 986 and Texas 974.

For the entire field of bowl teams, there were very disturbing statistics.

• Eighty-two schools (100%) had GSRs of 70% or higher for white football student-athletes, which was around 1.2 times the number of schools with equivalent GSRs for Black football student-athletes (69 schools or 84.1%).

• In 2023, five bowl-bound teams had a GSR for Black football student-athletes at least 30 percentage points lower than that of white football student-athletes.

• In 2023, 22% of bowl-bound schools (18 total) had GSRs for Black football student-athletes that were at least 20 percentage points lower than the rates for white football student-athletes.

• Eight schools had an APR below 950 — 21 points below the national average among these teams. New Mexico State had the lowest at 916. It was the first time a bowl-bound school had an APR below the 930 minimum score. They were joined by LSU at 923. Among the eight, there were three SEC schools: LSU, Tennessee at 946 and Texas A&M at 949.

• Nine schools had a GSR for Black football student-athletes that exceeded the rates for white football student-athletes, two more than in 2022: Wyoming, Auburn, UTSA, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Rice, Oregon State, Boston College and Northwestern.

“We cannot lose sight of the importance of our student-athletes graduating and having the education for a full and meaningful life,” said Arne Duncan, former Secretary of Education in the Barack Obama administration and former co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. “The [transfer] portal and NIL, which are welcome to support the desires and needs of our student-athletes, have to some degree complicated the path to a meaningful education. We must be sure that we adjust to be sure that they do get that meaningful education.”

The APR was created in 2004 to measure the success of current student-athletes. It was also hoped that it would help improve graduation rates. It examines the academic success of individual teams and sets a minimum goal of a 50% graduation rate with a score of 930. Failure to meet that standard can result in loss of scholarships and/or ineligibility for postseason competition.

In addition to a team’s current-year APR, its rolling four-year APR is also used to determine accountability.

This postseason eligibility structure became operative in the 2012-13 academic year with an original benchmark of 900, which was roughly the equivalent of a 40% graduation rate. In three years, the benchmark was moved from 900 to 930. For access to postseason competition, teams must achieve a 930 four-year average APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years to participate in championships. That is roughly the equivalent of a 50% graduation rate.

Bowl-bound FBS schools in Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC-12, and SEC) had an average APR of 974.2. This was 8.8 points higher than bowl-bound schools in Group of 5 conferences (American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt) with an average score 965.4. This is a significant widening from the 1.4 percentage point average difference between Power 5 conferences with an average APR of 970.0 and the Group of 5 conferences with an average APR of 968.6 in 2022.

Bowl-bound schools in the Big Ten had the highest average APR among all FBS conferences, and the AAC had the highest average GSR for Black football student-athletes among all FBS conferences.

I support the work of the Drake Group, for many years perhaps the most important reform group in college sports. They are strong supporters of using the federal graduation rates (FGR) instead of the GSR, which was developed in 2002. I believe the GSR is a more fair standard. The FGR does not account for transfers who leave one school in good academic standing and graduate at another institution. The FGR also does not count a junior who transfers into a four-year college and graduates. And it doesn’t include a former student-athlete who returns and graduates more than six years after original enrollment. The GSR accounts for these factors and, from my viewpoint, is as a better way to fairly measure the results.

Using the FGR, looking at the rates of student-athletes between 2018 and 2021, the graduation rates would be between 18 and 35 percentage points higher than using the FGR. The wide variation is reflective of the sport, race and gender in the DI revenue sports.

I remain concerned that with all the dramatic changes in college sport, from NIL to the transfer portal, we lose sight of the academics of college sport. How can athletes get a full education if they play for four different schools in four years? That has to be on the schools and not the student-athletes.

For years, I have advocated for increasing the baseline of the APR from 930 (or the equivalent of a 50% GSR) to 960 (approximately a 60% GSR). Only eight of the 80 bowl teams this year were below that standard, and that is the largest number in recent years. The average GSR of the 82 teams is 83% — 33% higher than if the standard were 950.

Michigan and Washington played for the national championship. We can celebrate that and the fact they got there with stellar academic records. They had an 89% and 84% GSR, respectively. And an APR of 987 and 986, respectively. Their Black football student-athletes had GSR of 88% and 81%, with a gap between white and Black athletes of 3% and 1%, respectively. Their records come as no surprise as they have been led by two of the athletics directors I admire most: Warde Manuel at Michigan and Jen Cohen, who was at UW from 2016 through October 2023, when she became USC’s AD.

It can be done but only with a focus on the student in the student-athlete. I am so glad they can now be paid and have the freedoms that they never had before. I have supported both for many years. But the ultimate prize here is a degree that will serve them and their families for a lifetime.

Richard E. Lapchick recently retired as director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of 17 books and the annual Racial and Gender Report Card and is the president of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice. He has been a regular commentator for ESPN.com on issues of diversity in sport. Follow him on Twitter @richardlapchick and on Facebook.