NCAA report: Graduation rates reach 60 percent among Division I athletes

Thursday, September 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The college graduation rate for Division I athletes has reached 60 percent for the first time since the NCAA began tracking the figures 18 years ago, according to a survey released by the athletic association Thursday.

Male athletes are graduating at a rate of 54 percent, up 3 percentage points from a year ago, while the rate for female athletes remained at 69 percent.

The survey, covering athletes on scholarship who entered college in 1995, measured the percentage who graduated within six years. The graduation rate for athletes remained 2 percentage points higher than the rate for the general student population.

The graduation rate was 43 percent for black male athletes in Division I, and 60 percent for black females.

Only 36 percent of male basketball players in Division I-A, the top echelon of basketball programs, graduated, although that was up from 32 percent a year earlier. The rate for black basketball players was 28 percent, up from 24 percent, and the rate for white male basketball players was 51 percent, up from 49 percent.

The graduation rate for female basketball players remained at 65 percent. The rate dropped from 61 percent a year ago to 59 percent this year for black female basketball players, and from 70 percent to 69 percent among white female players.

Among Division I football players, the graduation rate was 52 percent this year, up from 49 percent.

The NCAA began tracking graduation rates in 1984.