Most NBA, NFL Draftees Putting Off Graduation

Almost two-thirds of the athletes chosen in the pro football and basketball drafts this year failed to get their college degrees.

An Associated Press survey shows that of the 385 players selected in the two drafts, 232--or 64.1%--did not graduate, many dropping out of school just shy of graduation to pursue a pro career.

The status of 21 football players could not be determined because their schools would not release graduation data for privacy reasons. Two European basketball players did not attend American schools.

Football players were less likely to graduate than their basketball colleagues.

Of the 331 players selected in the NFL draft last April, 204 did not graduate. Of the 54 players selected in the NBA draft last month, 28 did not complete their degree work.

Among Southern California schools, Cal State Fullerton had two football and one basketball player drafted, with one graduating; Loyola Marymount had one basketball player, Bo Kimble, drafted and he graduated; Cal State Northridge had one football player drafted and he did not graduate; USC had 10 football players drafted, including underclassmen Mark Carrier and Junior Seau, and two graduated; UCLA had five football players and a basketball player drafted, only one of whom graduated.

The AP survey also found that:

--At least 82 NFL draft choices left school one semester or less away from a degree to attend workouts run by scouting combines for the teams and the league.

--Some athletes had more than enough credits for graduation but not enough required courses. Instead, they took easier courses to maintain their athletic eligibility. There is, for example, the case of Miami of Ohio basketball Coach Jerry Peirson, under NCAA investigation after giving an “A” to one of his players in a course titled “Theory of Basketball,” despite the fact that the student never attended the class.

--There are dramatic contrasts between schools. At Notre Dame all nine drafted football players got diplomas. Houston and Florida State were a combined zero for 14 in degrees for drafted football players. Houston also had a basketball player drafted. He didn’t graduate, either.

--Although there are many close calls, with one or two courses separating an athlete from his degree, there are many more wide misses. Among them: All-American basketball star Gary Payton, more than a year short at Oregon State; and nose tackle Tory Epps, 50 credits away at Memphis State.

The No. 1 picks in both drafts are non-graduates.

The NBA’s Derrick Coleman, picked first by the New Jersey Nets, played four years at Syracuse and left a semester short of a degree in sociology. The NFL’s Jeff George, selected by the Indianapolis Colts, came out of Illinois as a redshirt junior one semester short of a degree in speech communications.

Some football players were as close as one course to graduating. In almost all of those cases, the players withdrew to attend pre-draft scouting combines and rookie mini-camps. That tendency is a constant irritant for academic administrators and has prompted NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to promise new guidelines next month.

Typical is the case of Ohio State guard Tim Moxley, a ninth-round pick by the Washington Redskins. He left school one quarter short of his degree in natural resources and forestry.

“It’s a bother to me that people look at graduation rates and he’s a negative even though he went through five years here with a double major,” said Larry Romanoff, athletics academic counselor at Ohio State.

“The pros say ‘Now!’ and he drops out. He was one-third of the way through chemistry when he had to drop it in the spring. He would have graduated. He’s a great kid who worked hard and did better here than he did in high school. But he’s always a negative in graduation studies.”

That does not mean, however, that Moxley won’t eventually get his degree. Romanoff expects him back after football season. Many athletes find their way back to campus to finish what they started.

“William White of the Detroit Lions was here four years in engineering, almost an honor student,” Romanoff said. “Here, engineering is a five-year course. He’s back for two courses. He’s taking it a quarter at a time. Keith Ferguson of Detroit graduated this quarter. He was 2 1/2 quarters short when he left. Ten years later, he came back to finish. (Ex-NBA player) Clark Kellogg is back. Nobody hears about those cases.”

Notre Dame, Houston and Florida State represent the extremes among drafted athletes. The middle might be represented by Miami, where the national football champions had nine players drafted by NFL teams and five finished their studies. Anna Price is the university’s assistant athletic director for academics and student services.

“The crucial thing in my view are the expectations of the student-athlete,” Price said. “When you expect them to graduate, they respond. Then you must provide the services necessary to get them the support to graduate.”

Achieving a diploma can be complicated. “For a lot of young people--not just athletes--they have more hours than they need and they don’t graduate,” Price said. “They take different courses to raise their grade-point averages. They need 120 credits, they end up with 140, but no degree.”

And then they’re gone.

David Wells, assistant athletic director for academics at Mississippi, wonders if the situation will change. “I’m not sure it will be corrected,” he said. “For some of those drafted and signed, putting off the degree for pro compensation is justifiable. It’s hard to tell them to get their degrees so they can get a job for $25,000, when one game played pays maybe $25,000.”

Coming back is difficult because of the demands of pro sports.

“We’ve got a player, Wesley Walls, a great student with an NCAA post-graduate scholarship, an engineering student,” Wells said. “He’s one semester away. He’s with the (San Francisco) 49ers. When can he get back? Summer camp starts in July and by the time they’re through with their season, its too late for spring.”

There are other drawbacks, too.

“It’s hard for older people to come back and re-groove themselves to studying, sitting with people six and seven years younger,” Wells said.

“The person who’s not graduated is not necessarily a poor student. A lot of times the circumstances justify leaving. I’d do the same thing with the opportunity. We’re pious to criticize those who don’t graduate for what they do.”

The absence of a departing athlete’s degree does not always mean the school has failed, according to Gayle Hopkins, assistant athletic director for academics at Arizona. Of the six athletes drafted into the NFL and NBA from his school, only linebacker Chris Singleton, picked No. 1 by the New England Patriots, is graduating.

“The numbers are misleading,” Hopkins said. “The others are all transfers from junior colleges and lost credits coming here.”

None of Arizona’s five non-graduates is more than two semesters away from his degree. For Hopkins, the educational commitment of his school remains intact. “We provide the fifth-year scholarship,” he said. “They’re never gone as far as we’re concerned. We stay in touch with them and we don’t let up.”

The four-year course of study, once the accepted college regimen, has fallen by the wayside. Nationwide, only 14% of all college students, graduate in four years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Nationally, graduation rates are climbing, estimated at 1.017 million for 1989 and 1990, up from 993,000 in 1988.

In sports, four-year students have been replaced by redshirts, a system that allows athletes to sit out a season, affording them an extra year’s time to accumulate the credits needed for graduation. Originally for injured players, redshirting is now a common way to save a year’s eligibility for players.

Some players, hungry for pro contracts, are not interested in delaying their move into the pros for a fifth year in college.

Transfers from junior colleges complicate the picture. Credits often do not follow athletes from one school to another. At Ohio State, however, Romanoff made sure they would for one athlete.

“When Todd Bell was in Chicago with the Bears, I arranged for him to take courses at DePaul that could be transferred,” Romanoff said. “He said, ‘I played in the football stadium. I’m going to graduate in the football stadium.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”

GRADUATION BREAKDOWN

Here is a school-by-school breakdown of the graduation status of 383 college athletes drafted this year by the NFL and the NBA. Of these athletes, 130 graduated, 232 didn’t graduate and the status of 21 was unavailable. The key to the tables: FB--Football players; BK--Basketball players; T--Total; G--Graduated; NG--Not graduated; NA--Status not available.

School FB BK T G NG NA Alabama 3 0 3 1 2 0 Albany St., Ga. 1 0 1 - - 1 Alcorn St 2 0 2 1 1 0 Appalachian St 2 0 2 1 1 0 Arizona 5 1 6 1 5 0 Arizona St 1 0 1 1 0 0 Arkansas 4 0 0 3 1 0 Arkansas St 1 0 0 0 1 0 Auburn 4 0 4 1 3 0 Baylor 2 0 2 0 2 0 Boston College 1 0 1 1 0 0 Boston U 1 0 1 1 0 0 Bowling Green 3 0 3 0 3 0 Brigham Young 1 0 1 0 1 0 C.W. Post 1 0 1 0 1 0 California 1 0 1 0 1 0 CS Fullerton 2 1 3 1 2 0 CS Northridge 1 0 1 0 1 0 Carson-Newman 2 0 2 0 2 0 Central Michigan 1 0 1 1 0 0 Central St., Ohio 1 0 1 0 1 0 Clemson 3 1 4 0 4 0 Colorado 2 0 2 0 2 0 Connecticut 0 1 1 1 0 0 Dartmouth 0 1 1 1 0 0 Dayton 0 1 1 1 0 0 Duke 2 2 4 3 1 0 East Carolina 4 0 4 1 3 0 Elizabeth City St. 0 1 1 0 1 0 Ferrum 1 0 1 0 1 0 Florida 4 1 5 1 4 0 Florida St. 7 0 7 0 7 0 Fresno St. 5 0 5 1 4 0 Georgia 3 1 4 1 3 0 Georgia Southern 1 0 1 0 1 0 Georgia Tech 1 2 3 0 3 0 Grambling 2 0 2 1 1 0 Hawaii 1 0 1 0 1 0 Houston 7 1 8 0 8 0 Howard 1 0 1 0 1 0 Humboldt St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 Idaho 1 0 1 0 1 0 Illinois 2 3 5 2 3 0 Illinois St. 1 0 1 1 0 0 Indiana 2 0 2 0 2 0 Iowa 2 1 3 2 1 0 Iowa St. 2 0 2 1 1 0 Jackson St. 3 0 3 0 3 0 Jacksonville 0 1 1 0 1 0 Jacksonville St. 2 0 2 0 2 0 James Madison 1 0 1 1 0 0 Kansas 0 1 1 1 0 0 Kansas St. 1 1 2 0 2 0 Kentucky 3 0 3 1 2 0 Lamar 1 0 1 0 1 0 LaSalle 0 1 1 1 0 0 Liberty 2 0 2 1 1 0 Louisiana St. 7 1 8 1 7 0 Louisiana Tech 2 0 2 1 1 0 Louisville 1 1 2 1 1 0 Loyola Marymount 0 1 1 1 0 0 Maine 3 0 3 2 1 0 Maryland 2 2 4 3 1 0 Marquette 0 1 1 0 1 0 Memphis St. 2 0 2 0 2 0 Miami, Fla. 9 0 9 5 4 0 Michigan 5 4 9 6 3 0 Michigan St. 6 0 6 5 1 0 Minnesota 5 1 6 1 5 0 Minnesota-Duluth 1 0 1 0 1 0 Mississippi 3 1 4 0 4 0 Mississippi St. 2 0 2 0 2 0 Missouri 1 0 1 0 1 0 Murray St. 1 0 1 1 0 0 NE Louisiana 1 0 1 0 1 0 NW Louisiana 2 0 2 0 2 0 Nebraska 5 0 5 2 3 0 Nebraska Wesleyan 1 0 1 0 1 0 Nevada Las Vegas 1 0 1 1 0 0 Nevada Reno 1 0 1 0 1 0 New Mexico 1 0 1 0 1 0 Nicholls St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 Norfolk St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 North Carolina 2 0 2 0 2 0 North Carolina St. 2 0 2 0 2 0 N. Arizona 3 0 3 0 3 0 N. Illinois 1 0 1 0 1 0 N. Iowa 1 0 1 0 1 0 Notre Dame 9 0 9 9 0 0 Ohio St. 3 0 3 1 2 0 Ohio U. 0 1 1 1 0 0 Oklahoma 3 0 3 3 0 0 Oregon 4 0 4 1 3 0 Oregon St. 2 1 3 2 1 0 Oregon Tech 1 0 1 0 1 0 Pacific Lutheran 1 0 1 1 0 0 Penn St. 4 0 4 1 3 0 Pittsburgh 7 0 7 1 1 5 Princeton 1 0 1 1 0 0 Providence 0 1 1 1 0 0 Purdue 4 1 5 4 1 0 St. John’s 0 1 1 1 0 0 St. Louis 0 1 1 1 0 0 SE Missouri 1 0 1 0 1 0 SW Louisiana 1 0 1 0 1 0 SW Texas St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 San Diego St. 2 0 2 1 1 0 San Jose St. 2 0 2 0 2 0 Savannah St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 So. Mississippi 2 0 2 - - 2 South Carolina 2 0 2 2 0 0 South Dakota 1 0 1 1 0 0 Southern U. 2 0 2 1 1 0 St. Cloud St. 1 0 1 - - 1 St. Francis, Ill. 1 0 1 0 1 0 Stanford 3 0 3 3 0 0 Stephen F. Austin 4 0 4 - - 4 Syracuse 5 1 6 3 3 0 Temple 0 1 1 0 1 0 Tennessee 6 0 6 0 6 0 Tennessee St. 4 0 4 0 4 0 Tennessee Tech 0 1 1 0 1 0 Texas 2 2 4 2 2 0 Texas A&I; 2 0 2 0 2 0 Texas A&M; 8 0 8 - - 8 Texas Christian 3 0 3 2 1 0 Texas El Paso 0 2 2 0 2 0 Texas Tech 1 0 1 0 1 0 Tulane 1 0 1 1 0 0 UCLA 5 1 6 1 5 0 USC 10 0 10 2 8 0 Utah 1 0 1 0 1 0 Utah St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 Valdosta St. 1 0 1 0 1 0 Vanderbilt 2 0 2 2 0 0 Virginia 3 0 3 3 0 0 Virginia Tech 2 1 3 0 3 0 Virginia Union 0 1 1 0 1 0 Wake Forest 2 0 2 2 0 0 Washington 6 0 6 3 3 0 Washington St. 6 0 6 2 4 0 West Virginia 7 0 7 2 5 0 Western Illinois 1 0 1 0 1 0 Western Kentucky 2 0 2 0 2 0 Western Michigan 1 0 1 0 1 0 Winston-Salem 1 0 1 0 1 0 Wisconsin 1 0 1 1 0 0 Wisconsin-LaCrosse 1 0 1 1 0 0 Wisc.-Stevens Pt 1 0 1 0 1 0 Wyoming 1 0 1 0 1 0 Xavier 0 2 2 2 0 0

NOTE: Schools refusing to release graduation specifics were Albany State, Ga., Baylor, Pittsburgh, St. Cloud State, Southern Mississippi, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M;, UCLA, USC and West Virginia.