Recently, 10 schools were banned from participating in the 2012-2013 NCAA men’s basketball tournament for failure to meet academic standards: Arkansas - Pine Bluff, Cal State - Bakersfield, California - Riverside, Connecticut, Jacksonville State, Mississippi Valley State, UNC Wilmington, Texas A & M - Corpus Christi, Toledo and Towson.
The NCAA rates teams according to their Academic Progress Rate, in which a team is viewed as a whole and its performance in the classroom is evaluated. If a team’s APR score falls to 925 or below and at least one player fails his classes and drops out of school, that school can lose scholarships. If the APR sinks down to 900, the penalties grow steeper and they increase each year that the team falls below par. Being declared ineligible for NCAA postseason play is a result of scoring 900 or below for three years. If the APR remains low for a fourth year, the entire athletic department is penalized. The school loses its Division 1 status and is reduced to “restricted membership status” in the NCAA.
Is this fair or too extreme? I’m not saying this just because my school – Jacksonville State – is on the naughty list, but I’m not sure that I completely agree with the NCAA’s punishment. If a student-athlete fails to perform academically, he should lose his scholarship, be suspended from the team, etc. But the players who make good grades, the coaches, and the fans should not be punished for the underperformance of the few. College students are adults – it’s up to each individual to study and work hard.
But what do YOU think? Is the NCAA spot-on with its academic standards and penalties, or does something need to change?
Kara Coleman graduated from Gadsden State Community College with an Associate of Arts degree and she is currently studying communications with concentration in print journalism at Jacksonville State University. Kara's writing has been featured in Teen Ink magazine and she is a children's author through Big Dif Books; she is also the editor-in-chief of JSU's student newspaper, The Chanticleer.
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