Pending NCAA report misleading, OU officials say

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ An NCAA report that shows a graduation rate of just 34 percent for Oklahoma student-athletes is an aberration that doesn't reflect what is happening now at the school, athletic

Thursday, September 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ An NCAA report that shows a graduation rate of just 34 percent for Oklahoma student-athletes is an aberration that doesn't reflect what is happening now at the school, athletic department officials said Wednesday.

The report, expected to be released in the coming weeks, involves the 65 male and female scholarship athletes who enrolled as freshmen at OU in the 1995-96 school year.

Of those, 25 graduated during the six-year period covered by the study. Twenty-eight transferred to other schools, including 11 football players _ 58 percent of that year's football recruiting class _ who left after what was Howard Schnellenberger's only year as coach.

``This clearly is an atypical year and it's a direct result of the players who left in football,'' said Gerald Gurney, director of academic affairs for the athletic department.

The NCAA bases its graduation rates on the number of students who receive degrees from their initial university within six years of the time they enroll as freshmen. Students who transfer and receive degrees from other schools are not credited in the original school's totals.

Only three of the 19 football players who enrolled as freshman in 1995 graduated during the six-year time frame. Eleven transferred, three turned professional, and two exhausted their eligibility while in good academic standing.

The pending NCAA report gives OU zero graduates in men's basketball. Two freshmen were on the team in 1995-96 _ one transferred and received his degree from another university, the other, who went through injuries and got married while in college, received his degree one semester after the six-year time frame, Gurney said.

``Is he any less a graduate? No,'' he said.

Gurney said Oklahoma's graduation rates in previous NCAA studies have generally been in the range of 47 percent to 49 percent. The graduation rate for the whole student body usually is 50 percent to 53 percent, he said.

He and athletic director Joe Castiglione said the NCAA's report covering freshmen who enrolled in 1996-97 will show a 74 percent graduation rate for OU. The report will be released next summer.

That figure would be ``far and away the highest graduation rate ever in our recorded history'' and could well lead the Big 12, Gurney said.

Of the 17 football players who were freshman in 1996, 11 graduated, or 65 percent. In basketball, two of the three freshmen that year graduated and the third turned pro.

From the 1996 class of freshmen, 62 percent of male athletes graduated during the time frame and 96 percent of female athletes _ 23 of 24 _ did so.

``This is indicative of what this athletic department can do when there is stability among the leadership, among coaches,'' Gurney said. ``It's also indicative of what we're capable of doing when we support our student-athletes.''