Maryland Ranks Dead Last in Graduation Rate

The NCAA on Wednesday released data on the graduation rates of college student-athletes who entered school between 1997 and 2000, and only one school in the country didn't graduate a single basketball player who enrolled during that time: Maryland.

Neither Maryland coach Gary Williams nor the school's administrators seem to think that is a big problem, though:

"They had a lot of on-court success, but we would've liked more off-court success," said Anton Goff, associate athletic director for academic support and career development. "For some reason or other, that didn't happen as far as graduation rates are concerned. We can't change the number now. We're not happy about it, but it was 10 years ago."

I don't like the way that a school's graduation rate has become shorthand for its academic integrity. A school with a high graduation rate isn't necessarily educating its student-athletes; it could just be making it incredibly easy to get a diploma.

On the other hand, a school that doesn't graduate any student-athletes is almost certainly not doing a very good job of making sure its scholarship athletes are actual students, which means there are almost certainly some pretty big problems at Maryland.

Hat tip: Sports by Brooks.