It’s been almost 25 years since the NCAA first began collecting and publishing student-athlete graduation rates, and in all but two of them – the first two, actually – the data show student-athlete rates consistently surpass those of their student-body counterparts.
In January 1990, the NCAA membership passed legislation requiring schools to report rates disaggregated by race, gender and sport (specifically, football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and men’s and women’s track/cross country). The vote at the 1990 NCAA Convention preceded by about 10 months the U.S. Congress’...