Race, sports and graduation rates

The disparity between graduation rates for white and black players at schools headed to bowl games grew again in 2010 even as overall academic progress increased for both, a new study has found. The annual report by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that the graduation success rate is increasing at a higher rate for white players than black players. Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study, said it's a "disturbing" gap that has continued to widen. "The growing gap is and has been my biggest concern with graduations rates for some time," he said. "It's like in the economy if income for Latinos and African-American grows at 2% but increases 3% for whites. Yes, it's getting better. But it's still not great for everybody." The graduation success rate for black players went from 58% to 60% in 2010 among the 70 bowl teams. But for white players, the graduation rates increased from 77% in 2009 to 80% in 2010.