Big Ten Universities Graduate Only 51% of Football Players : Schools: Northwestern topped the list at 85%; Minnesota was at the bottom with 24%.

Big Ten colleges graduated only 51% of 1984-85 freshmen who played football and just 47% of those who played men’s basketball, the Chicago Tribune reported today.

But the graduation rate was better than the NCAA Division I average at nine of the 10 schools, the newspaper said.

The best graduation rate in the league was at Northwestern University, where 85% of the 1984-85 freshmen and transfer students who played football graduated and 100% of its male basketball players graduated.

Minnesota was at the bottom of the list. Forty percent of men’s basketball players and 24% of football players graduated there, the newspaper said.

The report was based on academic reporting forms provided to the NCAA and obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Northwestern, a private school whose football and basketball teams traditionally rank near the bottom of the Big 10, did not have to file the reports but provided some data orally to the Tribune.

The NCAA reports documented the number of 1984 freshmen and transfer students involved in a variety of sports, ranging from golf to wrestling.

The average graduation rate for football players at NCAA Division I schools is 38%; for basketball players, the average is 33%, a May, 1990, report by the NCAA said. The average for all athletes is 47.4%.

Only Minnesota fell below those levels, the Tribune said.

But critics said that given the financial and educational assistance available to student athletes, the graduation figure should be much higher.

“Given the circumstances, we ought to expect athletes to do better,” said faculty representative Sam Becker at the University of Iowa, where the overall graduation rate for athletes was 61%, fourth on the list.

Illinois was second, with an overall athlete-graduation rate of 64.6%; Purdue was third at 62.8%.

In fifth place was Michigan State at 60.8%, followed by Michigan’s 60.6% and Wisconsin’s 56.5%. Indiana was in eighth place with 53.8%, followed by Ohio State’s graduation rate of 52.9%.

The overall graduation rate at Northwestern, the league leader, was 85%, compared with 35.9% at Minnesota, at the bottom of the list.

Graduation rates for athletes were higher than those for all freshmen at four of the schools--Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Ohio State.

Only 27% of all 1984 freshmen at Minnesota graduated, worst in the league. But Minnesota has an open enrollment policy; any graduate of a Minnesota high school can enroll in the state university regardless of academic record, said Athletic Director Rick Bay said.