As Thejerseychaser.com pointed out yesterday, NCAA basketball has a horrible graduation completition rate. The NBA only requires its players to play one year of college or minor league basketball before being eligiable for the draft…. but the US Education Secretary is trying to change that. Secretary Arne Duncan wrote an open letter in the Washington Post saying:

“Colleges and universities need to stop trotting out tired excuses for basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the graduation rates of white and black players. And it is time that the NCAA revenue distribution plan stopped handsomely rewarding success on the court with multimillion-dollar payouts to schools that fail to meet minimum academic standards.

“…I spent time on the court with inner-city players who had been used and dumped by their universities. When the ball stopped bouncing, they struggled to find work and had difficult lives. Some died early. The dividing line for success was between those who went to college and got their degrees, and those who did not. If a team fails to graduate even half of its players, how serious are the institution and coach about preparing their student-athletes for life?”

If the NCAA touranment was based on graduation rates, Notre Dame would win.

Today was the opening round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. While many agree that March Madness is the greatest sports day of the year, a recent documentary has casted negative light on the sport. In an ESPN documentary on the “Fab 5,” 1990s Michigan player Jalen Rose critized Duke for only recruiting “Uncle Tom” players for fear of having to pay inner city and low income families to play with the school. College basketball has long been critized for players coming out too early to go pro. Under NBA draft rules, a player is only required to play one year of college basketball before he can turn pro… more than half of the NCAA tournament teams have a less than 50 percent graduation rate.