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March Madness.
The mere mention of the hallowed spectacle of athletic accomplishment quickens the heartbeat of even casual sports fans.
Locally, a deep run into the tournament inspires nearly 24-hour broadcasts of local news.
For just over two weeks every spring, Cinderella is no longer a Disney character, but is an overachieving group of athletes driven to unforeseeable greatness by the right blend of momentum, determination and luck.
As much as we enjoy the event, from simply watching the games to participating in an office pool, it highlights some of the major difficulties going on in American universities today.
Among most of the teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen, a remarkable disparity exists between the graduation rates of white students and black students.
For example, the University of Memphis, which would advance to the Elite Eight before falling to Ohio State University, graduates only 25.7 percent of its African American students, according to The Education Trust.
This falls well short of the national average of 41.2 percent for all African Americans and the school’s graduation rate among white students, which is 36.6 percent.
Athletic achievement is certainly praiseworthy and college basketball in March is one of the country’s greatest athletic stages, but it is necessary to remember that student-athletes are exactly that, and the student should always come first.
Of the last sixteen remaining college basketball programs, only five squads received Academic Progress rates higher than 925, indicating that athletes are being retained and graduated at a level suitable to the National College Athletic Association.
Simple math reveals that eleven of the sixteen schools, nearly 70 percent, are failing.
The worst offender, by far, was the University of Southern California, whose basketball team registered a paltry and embarrassing APR of 771.
The news isn’t all bad, however. Traditionally strong academic institutions, such as the University of North Carolina, Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University all scored at least 975.
This only highlights the fact that there are academic haves and have-nots in the same manner as basketball programs.
It’s inspirational to many when an average team of average players such as George Mason University last year, defeats a string of teams whose players are months away from lucrative professional paycheck.
Unfortunately, no mechanism exists to pique public interest in underachieving academic institutions, the Cinderellas of higher education, as athletic programs increasingly become the facades of colleges and universities nation wide.
The real madness of March, and any other month, is that many students are becoming frustrated with school, falling through cracks in the administration and dropping out.
If only there were tournaments for them.
