This week marks the beginning of my favorite time of year. Already mentally prepared for another epic quest by my beloved San Francisco Giants to finally capture the elusive World Series title, I need something to divert my attention until opening day.
Voila, welcome to March Madness -- college basketball's 65 team, three-week, single-elimination playoff extravaganza that will crown its national champion this year in Atlanta on April 2 (by the way, the Giants open April 3).
The NCAA men's basketball tournament is a cultural sports phenomenon, rivaled only by the Super Bowl. Even the casual college basketball fan will rearrange his or her schedule, annual office pools are organized, Las Vegas has laid down the odds and this may be the only time where a CEO of a Fortune 500 company will venture down to the mail room for suggestions.
All that is left is for the viewing public to be thoroughly entertained by high-flying student-athletes. Did I say student-athlete? I meant athlete; and if I were somewhat cynical, I would call it indentured servitude.
For a number of the 65 schools participating in this year's tournament, the term student-athlete is as oxymoronic as compassionate conservatism. The University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports released a study this week that indicates a number of schools are graduating players.
Graduation Success Rates -- which account for players who transfer to other schools and receive degrees, players entering from junior colleges and those who receive degrees more than six years after enrollment -- indicate programs successful on the court are failing in the classroom.
According to the study, schools of different sizes and demographics show an unfortunate consistency of not graduating players. The tally includes Tennessee (8 percent), UNLV (10 percent), Maryland (13 percent), Texas A&M (15 percent), Virginia Tech (17 percent), Gonzaga and Louisville (22 percent), Georgia Tech and Kentucky (23 percent), Memphis and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25 percent).
Stanford graduated 100 percent of its basketball players in 2002 as well as 88 percent for all student-athletes and 92 percent for all students. Other top-rated schools included Holy Cross (86 percent), Butler (82 percent), Creighton (78 percent), Davidson and Michigan State (75 percent).
(By comparison, University of California, Berkeley, saw 18 percent of its basketball players graduate in 2002, compared to 58 percent of its athletes and 82 percent of its students.)
When graduation percentages are low, the culprits are coaches entrusted with the well-being of these young people. But that's overly simplistic. The real villain is money.
College basketball and football are big money enterprises. It's an era where it can require the salaries of 10 to 15 tenured professors to match one successful coach who places less incentive on graduating players. Far more college coaches will be fired this year for not winning than for not producing players with diplomas.
There are top teams in this tournament -- Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin -- that have very good graduation rates. But they are the exception, not the rule.
The NCAA can do little more than take its share of the money and grumble behind close doors. CBS has agreed to a $6 billion, 11-year contract to air, among events, selected college football games along with the highly-rated national basketball tournament.
The NCAA is quick to flex its oversight muscle by coming down hard on those programs caught cheating. But with the amount of money involved and the pressure to win, it is unrealistic to believe a coach can recruit top players with only the promise of a free education, room and board.
Often times, coaches recruit players with no intention of them completing four years of school, let alone graduate. Many of these players arrive on campus holding to the scant dream of playing professional basketball, which is less likely than becoming a brain surgeon. Meanwhile, they are caught in the vortex of greed.
The system is corrupt at every level; the NCAA must be honest about its product. It is profiting handsomely on the athletic prowess of teenagers -- most of whom will not see the NBA or graduation.
So as the rest of us complete our brackets, leave work early to catch games, cut classes and have our predictions rise or fall on a last-second shot, just remember it's not called March Madness for nothing.
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at (510) 208-6417.