Academics test U., Y. teams

As bowl teams head to the field this week, university leaders are trying to make sure those same football players are headed toward the graduation line, as well.

The University of Utah and Brigham Young University will each compete this week in a bowl game, but both institutions are facing challenges in getting degrees into their football players' hands.

While the two universities meet NCAA standards to maintain student athletic scholarships, the U. is facing a major success gap between its black and white students who play football. At the same time, BYU barely squeaked by the national standards for ushering its football players toward a degree.

At the U., which will face the University of Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 23, football players on scholarship post an overall graduation rate of 56 percent.

"They're monitoring very closely to make sure they are students as well as athletes," said JoAnne Hulbert-Eagan, director of academic services for athletics at the U. "Our trend definitely is progressing. We're making an effort, but it's a concern for everyone."

The U.'s graduation rate is slightly lower than Tulsa's 58 percent graduation rate, according to NCAA figures based on students who began college in 2000 and graduated within five years.

While that better-than-half rate keeps the U. from losing scholarships, Hulbert-Eagan said the underlying problem is the disparity between white and black players. White football players are graduating at about an 84 percent rate, while only about 45 percent of black players graduate.

That puts the U. in a grouping of only about 13 of 64 bowl teams this year with a racial gap wider than 30 percent, according the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, which analyzed the NCAA data as part of an annual study on bowl teams.

"Those numbers are not good, but we feel we're making progress," Hulbert-Eagan said. "This is something we address each year. We look to improve it on all levels. We look at gender and ethnicity and our comparison with other institutions."

About 42 percent of bowl-bound teams graduated fewer than half of their black athletes, while only 5 percent graduated fewer than half of white football athletes.