CNN: Life After Basketball... + Minnesota APR

[Gopher Warrior]

CNN article: Life after basketball takes former players down different paths

Men's NCAA Division 1 basketball players have one of the worst graduation rates in college sports, according to a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. More than a dozen schools didn't graduate at least half their players in recent seasons, according to the study, which looked at how many players completed their degrees in six years. For instance, the University of Connecticut graduates 25% of its players; the University of Florida graduates 38%, Michigan 45%, and at Indiana it was 47%.

Those figures exclude star players who leave school early to play in the NBA.

Somewhat related to graduation rates... APR scores. I've got a bunch of notes & calcs somewhere, but just off hand I recall there being a couple of potential things that could knock down the basketball program's score a little for last year, but overall shouldn't be a bad year. Anyone know if Mr. Nolen graduated?

I think we've only got published single-year scores going back to 2008-09, but if you do some math you can come up with reasonable estimates back to 2003-04. Don't quote me on this, but I thought when I came up with estimates ~10 months ago that 2003-04 through 2005-06 were bad (sub-900ish), 2006-07 through 2008-09 was solid (960's-981 range) and 2009-10 was ugly (898).

With just the one bad year (cut line is 930), it doesn't look like Minnesota will face any UCONN-like scenarios any time soon, but until that 898 clears out of the 4-year calculation there is a risk that one more bad year could make things interesting...

Really haven't looked at other Big Ten teams much.. anyone know if any programs are sweating a little bit?

 

[rrjackIII]

With just the one bad year (cut line is 930), it doesn't look like Minnesota will face any UCONN-like scenarios any time soon, but until that 898 clears out of the 4-year calculation there is a risk that one more bad year could make things interesting...

The 'cut line' for the 4-year calculation is 900. The 'cut line' for the 2-year calculation is 930. If the institution meets either the 2-year or the 4-year calculation they avoid the APR penalty associated with those calculations. It is possible Minnesota will not meet the 2-year figure of 930 since their 2009-2010 APR was 898. They would need a 962 APR for 2010-2011 to meet the 2-year average APR calculation of 930. They should have an APR for 2010-2011 anywhere from 940 to 1000. Transfers like Devoe Joseph and Colton Iverson would result in a lost APR retention point unless they transferred with a GPA of 2.6 or better. Then there would be no lost APR point for the transfer. If Nolen successfully completed his 2nd semester classes last year he would have an APR calculation 4/4 regardless of whether he graduated or not. As long as he had continued on a successful path toward graduation during that 2nd semester there should be no APR penalty.

If the 3 student athletes above all resulted in a lost APR point Minnesota's APR for 2010-2011 would be 940 (47/50 x 1000). If they all successfully met their respective APR criteria either as a student or met the 2.6 transfer GPA requirements Minnesota's APR would be 1000 for 2010-2011.

Minnesota's current 4-year average APR is around 964, including the 898 from last year. In order for them to be in any trouble in the next couple years under the 900 'cut line' for the 4-year APR calculation they would have to have the next couple years in the APR 880 range. That would include this years team APR. For this years team to plummet to that level about 6 players would have to transfer or be ineligible next fall in order to get toward that 880 APR ranking. 52-6 = 46. 46/52 x 1000 = 885.