It's bowl season in college football. Which, of course, means that the inevitable "Notre Dame is overrated, so-and-so was cheated out of a BCS berth, let's scrap the BCS system all together" arguments are not far behind.
There is, however, another bowl tradition that is not nearly as well known: Derrick Jackson's annual "Graduation Gap Bowl" column in The Boston Globe.
Each year, Jackson looks at the graduation rates of black and white football players at every school playing in a bowl game and ranks them based on how well they perform. (He also does this every March, just in time for the NCAA Basketball Tournament.)
The results are astounding. Jackson believes teams should be disqualified for graduating less than 50 percent of their black players and having more than a 15 percentage point gap between the graduation rates of white players and black players. Jackson claims in his Dec. 6 article titled "College football's winners and losers" that, if his criteria were applied to the participants of this season's bowl games, none of the top five games of the Bowl Championship Series would be played: "despite the presence of Notre Dame (95 percent graduation rate) and Wake Forest (93 percent), at least one team in each game would be banned for low rates and racial gaps."
Ohio State, the No. 1 team in the nation, graduates only 32 percent of its black players, compared to 85 percent of its white players. That's a 53 point disparity! Some of the other notable offenders include powerhouses like USC, UCLA, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama, California and Louisville.
I know what you're thinking, and no, it's not because a large percentage of these schools' black players are leaving early for the NFL. Remember, Div. I teams have far more players on their roster than you ever see on the field. Huge numbers of scholarship players never even step onto the playing field. A fair number don't even dress for the games.
How is this allowed? The facts are clear: These schools are using these players to bring as much revenue to their football program as possible. When they're no longer useful, these "prestigious" universities cast them aside as quickly as possible. What's unfortunate is that there is always another athlete ready to step in and replace their former teammate. What 18-year-old in his right mind would turn down the allure of Div. I football? These young men are revered as deities on their respective campuses during their time there. We've all seen "He Got Game." We know what perks these athletes have waiting for them.
Many of these programs are coached by some of the most respected coaches in college sports, not only for their number of wins, but for their perceived "integrity." Well I've got news for you Bob Stoops, Bobby Petrino, Mack Brown, Pete Carroll, Jeff Tedford, etc: You're failing in your responsibilities as leaders of young men. I don't care that you kicked Rhett Bomar out of school for recruiting violations. I do care that Oklahoma graduates only 43 percent of its black players.
These schools have a responsibility to their players. They must provide whatever academic resources are necessary in order to ensure that their players, black or white, are able to leave their universities with a degree, and not just a bunch of memories of their glory days as a college athlete.
There are some notable exceptions. Schools like Wake Forest, Boston College, and Notre Dame have managed to keep up stellar graduation rates while maintaining very respectable football programs. Both Wake Forest and Notre Dame will be playing in a BCS bowl game at the end of this season.
I can't ask you to boycott college football. I know I couldn't live without sitting down to watch games on Saturday afternoon. But I strongly urge you to check out Mr. Jackson's column and think about what he has to say.
And you wonder why I'm such an ardent Notre Dame fan.
Will Herberich is a freshman. He can be reached at Willian.Herberich@tufts.edu.
