Southeast: NCAA graduation report fails to tell whole story

~ The men's basketball program received unfavorable national attention.

Southeast Missouri State received the kind of unflattering national publicity that it doesn't target when the NCAA released graduation rates Wednesday.

But Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman said the public should not come to the conclusion that the university's academic situation is in disarray.

The NCAA report tracked the graduation rates at 318 Division I universities for athletes who enrolled from 1997 to 2000. It includes only athletes on scholarship, and they must have graduated within six years.

As far as the high-profile sport of men's basketball is concerned, Maryland did not graduate any players -- and Southeast had the next-worst graduation rate at 14 percent.

"Clearly this report is not flattering. We certainly don't want to be seen in that light," Kaverman said. "You read an article like that and look at the raw number ... you think all these kids are a bunch of dropouts."

But Kaverman emphasized it's important to look past the raw numbers. He said various factors affected Southeast's graduation rate for men's basketball during that time frame.

"A lot of times things can get skewed, especially when it's such a small sample size," he said.

A limited sample

For instance, the 14-percent figure is based on only seven players spread over four teams (1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01).

Only one of the seven -- Tim Scheer -- graduated within the allotted six years.

Another of the seven -- Monte Gordon, who left Southeast in 2002 without graduating -- re-enrolled this past spring and has graduation pending, but he will be out of the six-year graduation period.

Some other players who counted toward the figure -- most notably Michael Stokes and Amory Sanders -- both left school with upward of 120 credit hours, but never completed their degrees.

"Some of these players were right there to graduate, needing probably a semester or less," Kaverman said. "For whatever reason, they never finished up."

Several other players during that time period transferred before their eligibility expired, so they are not among the aforementioned seven and didn't count positively or negatively toward the graduation rate.

Some eventually did graduate.

For example, Drew DeMond transferred to complete his basketball eligibility, but came back to Southeast in 2004 and graduated. But since he had transferred, his graduation did not count toward Southeast's record.

Also, Nathan Owen was a solid student but left to complete his collegiate basketball career at Truman State.

And Matt Morris, an honors student who graduated in 2001 after four years, did not count because he was a walk-on.

Then there are several players during that time period who wound up graduating but, because they had started their college enrollment before 1997 at other schools, were counted during a different cohort.

Starters earn diplomas

Three of the five starters on Southeast's 1999-2000 NCAA tournament team -- Mike Branson, Roderick Johnson and Brian Bunche -- graduated, but they did not count toward the current cohort.

Three more players -- Cory Johnson, Demetrius Watson and Dewayne Saulsberry, who all played either in 1997-98, 1998-99 or both -- graduated but did not count toward the current cohort because, as junior college transfers, they had started their college enrollment before 1997.

"So you can see there are a lot of reasons why the figure is just 14 percent, even though we had quite a few players graduate from that time period," Kaverman said. "And keep in mind, this data is basically 10 years old.

"Clearly we want our numbers to be better. Keep in mind, this was before a lot of the academic reform came into play."

Four years ago, the NCCA, because of its concern for graduation rates -- particularly in the traditional poorest-performing sports of men's basketball, football and baseball -- began the Academic Progress Report (APR), where programs can be penalized if they don't meet certain academic standards.

"The APR kind of all stemmed from concerns about graduation rates," Kaverman said.

While Southeast men's basketball was singled out in an Associated Press story for having the second-worst graduation rate, Kaverman pointed out how well the figures reflected on many of Southeast's other sports.

Women's gymnastics and women's tennis both had perfect 100 percent graduation rates in the recently released figures.

Women's soccer (92 percent), women's volleyball (91 percent), men's track/cross country (88 percent), women's track/cross country (80 percent) and women's softball (78 percent) all rated highly.

Other Southeast sports and their graduation rates were women's basketball at 59 percent, football at 52 percent and baseball at 31 percent.

Kaverman said that across the nation baseball traditionally lags in graduation rates because so many players leave school for the professional ranks before graduating.

"Even on our level, we get kids drafted or they play on the independent level," Kaverman said. "Baseball's numbers are indicative why the NCAA has singled out that sport for academic reform.

"Across the board, I think it pretty well mirrors national data, the problem areas that have been identified in basketball, football and baseball."

The overall picture

Kaverman pointed out all the academic accomplishments Southeast athletes have garnered.

• Fifty-two percent of Southeast athletes have a 3.0 grade-point average or higher.
• Southeast claimed an Ohio Valley Conference-high 24 Medals of Honor (for athletes who achieve the highest GPA in a conference-sponsored sport) for the 2006-07 school year.
• A school-record 107 Southeast athletes were named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll (for having at least a 3.25 GPA) for the 2006-07 school year.
• The Southeast women's gymnastics team was honored for having the nation's top GPA in that sport.

"I think our overall numbers are very good," Kaverman said. "I feel good about the direction we're headed. Our numbers are trending upward. Our coaches are focused on academic success."

Not that Kaverman discounts the unflattering news that came out earlier this week.

"Clearly, this report is not something we want," he said. "But I think it's old news. We've moved on."