In a new report released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, noted that women’s basketball student-athletes showed consistently stellar results.
“Keeping Score When It Counts: Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate Study of the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament Teams,” provides a comprehensive analysis of the academic performance of student-athletes on teams competing in the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, which commence this week. It examines the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Academic Progress Rates (APR) as reported by the NCAA.
Dr. Adrien Bouchet
Overall, the GSR of men’s teams showed a slight decline from 2023 to present, from 84.9% to 84%. The women’s teams showed an overall increase from 93.8% in 2023 to 95.9% in 2024. White female basketball student-athletes graduated at a rate of 97.8% compared to Black female student-athletes at 95%.
The average GSR for Black male basketball student-athletes rose from 81.4% to 84.2%, while the average GSR of white male student-athletes fell from 95.4% in 2023 to 89.7% in 2024. This led to the narrowing of the gap in GSR between white and Black student-athletes.
“The disparity between white and Black men’s basketball players closed, but unfortunately it closed because the white basketball players’ graduation rate fell,” said Bouchet. “You really have to look at the data over time and see if that continues next year to see if you have a trend. It’s still surprising.”
In terms of APR, there was only one women’s team this year that fell below the 930 benchmark, scoring 926. There were three men’s teams that fell below 930, scoring 913, 924, and 924. The men’s basketball program at five schools had a GSR below 60%. Bouchet noted that, surprisingly, this included high profile programs such as University of Oregon, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Arizona.
