<p>Sci,</p>
<p>It turns out when you adjust the data for the athletes who leave early for professional careers (e.g. the NBA or the NFL or MLB), the grad rates are fairly close at most schools. There are exceptions, of course, but even if a jock takes an extra year or two to finish, on his/her dime, the stats will show that athletes have lower grad rates. The average student doesn’t finish in 4-years either. </p>
<p>Adjust your data by taking out the guys that sign multi-million or big signing bonus contracts and you might be surprised. </p>
<p>By the way, we have a justice system in this country. If the jocks beat up on an off-duty cop they will pay the price in the justice system. They might or might not loss their schollys as well. In some cases, the coach just cuts them off but in other cases it makes sense to give the jock a second change often with conditions attached. If the guy blows his second chance he often ends up back where he started. </p>
<p>Tenn is an SEC school and the SEC is definitely more focused on winning than almost any other conference but the truth is these people who blindly and broadly bash student-athletes and/or athletic administrators and coaches need to update their rhetoric because the NCAA has made significant changes in the last 25-30 years not just for admission standards but, for example, limiting the amount of hours athletes can focus on their sports per week, prohibiting jock only dorms so that jocks have to mix with the student populations, etc. combined with the amount of money schools spend on student-athlete support and life skills and now you actually have the student athlete model working in the vast majority of cases. </p>
<p>The haters just can’t get over that.</p>