Dogs, Jackets fare poorly in NCAA graduation report

Athens — Georgia and Georgia Tech graduated less than half of their football players who enrolled from 1998 through 2001 — two of just four teams from BCS conferences to fall short of 50 percent.

That’s according to new NCAA figures released Tuesday.

The annual Graduation Success Rate (GSR) study showed 48 percent of football players who entered both Georgia and Georgia Tech from 1998-2001 graduated within six years.

The only other BCS football teams below 50 percent: Arizona (41 percent) and Oklahoma (46 percent).

The study also showed Georgia graduated just 23 percent of its men’s basketball players who enrolled from 1998-2001 — actually an improvement over the two previous study periods. Tech graduated 50 percent of its men’s basketball players from the 1998-2001 enrollment period.

Nationally, 67 percent of Division I-A football players and 62 percent of men’s basketball players graduated, according to the study.

The GSR is a different metric than the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR), which provides a more up-to-date snapshot by measuring athletes recruited in the past five years.

Teams that lag on the APR can be penalized with loss of scholarships. No penalties are tied to the GSR results.

Georgia and Georgia Tech fared better in the latest APR results, released in May, both exceeding NCAA requirements. Georgia ranked among the SEC’s top three in football and men’s basketball in the APR.

“Certainly we are not where we want to be [in the graduation-rate study], and I’m disappointed in how we compare to some of the other conference schools,” Georgia athletics director Damon Evans said in a statement Tuesday. “However, I’m encouraged by the continued improvement of most of our sports in the GSR, including football.”

Georgia’s graduation rate in Tuesday’s study was up from the 41 percent in last year’s report, which covered the 1997-2000 period.

Evans said he expects the Bulldogs’ football GSR “to grow significantly beginning next year based on the number of graduates we’ve had in the last seven years.”

Said Georgia Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich in a statement: “While we are still a good way from being where we need to be, I think our overall numbers reflect well in this very rigorous academic environment. … We will use this report as a challenge for us to continue to move our graduation success rate in a positive direction with each passing year.”

— Staff writer Ken Sugiura contributed to this article.