Oct. 1, 2006: Academic standards lower for U athletes

As football players, Gary Russell and Danny Upchurch had little in common. Upchurch was a lesser known Gophers punt and kickoff-return specialist in 2002. Russell ran for 18 touchdowns last season, setting a University of Minnesota record.

But as students they shared the same troubles: Both were admitted despite low scores on college entrance exams. Both struggled in the classroom. And both left campus before graduating.

Their academic problems help illustrate why the university has one of the worst records of retaining and graduating athletes in the Big Ten. Even as the U is striving to raise its academic profile, which is making admission more difficult for many students, it has not held athletes to the same standards, a Star Tribune study shows.

The U provides athletic scholarships to more students with very low college entrance test scores than most schools in the Big Ten, records show.

Since 2001, in seven key sports, the U has admitted more scholarship athletes who scored 17 or below on the national ACT exam than any of seven Big Ten schools that responded to Freedom of Information requests from the Star Tribune.

The average university-wide ACT score for enrolled students last year was 25.1, out of a maximum score of 36. University officials acknowledge that students who score 17 or below will generally require remedial instruction once on campus.

The most glaring numbers belong to the university's football program, which in five recruiting seasons gave scholarships to 16 players with ACT scores of 15 or below. That's more than Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois combined.

The numbers appear to refute a chronic complaint from boosters that poor records on the field are the result of tougher academic standards at Minnesota than at other Big Ten schools.

University Vice Provost Craig Swan, who oversees admissions and academic counseling, said that, on the contrary, the university needs to change its approach to recruiting and retaining athletes.

"I'm not going to apologize for anything that was done in the past," he said. "That's not where we need to be in the future. That's all I'll say."

Low graduation rates

Minnesota's approach to recruiting and retaining athletes is hurting the school in several ways.

When the NCAA released its most recent graduation rate report last week, Minnesota was last in the Big Ten in seven sports, including football, men's and women's basketball and men's hockey.

Also, a new NCAA rule could soon hamper the ability of Gophers teams to compete on the field.

Earlier this year, University Athletic Director Joel Maturi told the school's regents that the NCAA likely will strip Minnesota of some scholarships in football and men's basketball next year for failing to meet new minimum requirements for academic progress.

In Coach Glen Mason's football program, about one-third of the scholarship athletes signed since 2001 scored 17 or lower on the ACT. The numbers also show that from 2001 through 2005, the U was not effectively serving marginal students it gave football scholarships.

Of the 21 players signing football scholarships for the 2003 season, only nine remain on the roster. Two of the 21 were star running back Laurence Maroney, who left school for the NFL, and Brandon Owens, who suffered a career-ending injury. Of the 2004 freshman class of 20, 11 remain.

The university would not divulge how many of the departed players did so for academic reasons.

Not only is Minnesota at the bottom of the most recent Big Ten graduation rates for scholarship athletes, its graduation rate for black male athletes -- 24 percent in the latest NCAA report -- is near the bottom nationally among major colleges.

Of the 56 Division I football teams in post-season bowl games last season, Minnesota ranked 53rd in graduation rates among its black players, tied with Louisville. Only Central Florida and Brigham Young had worse rates.

University President Robert Bruininks and Mason both declined repeated requests for interviews on this subject.

Instead, a university spokesman issued a written statement: "With new NCAA requirements, we have simply got to improve the academic performance and graduation rates of our student-athletes."

Overall, 23 percent of Minnesota's scholarship athletes in seven key sports scored 17 or below on the ACT, more than any of the six other Big Ten schools that provided data to the Star Tribune. For various reasons, Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue and Penn State resisted repeated Star Tribune Freedom of Information requests for their academic data.

The ACT is not a flawless predictor of academic success. Running back Thomas Tapeh had to sit out his freshman season in 1999, under old NCAA rules, because of his low ACT score. But he earned his degree and plays in the NFL. Campus officials, saying the entire university is in "transition," said the academic profile of athletes will rise as part of Bruininks' overall upgrading plan.

Maturi said the benchmark for admission to Minnesota has always been the ability to pass the so-called NCAA Clearinghouse, which uses a sliding scale based on test scores and grade point average. Students who fail to pass are called non-qualifiers and are not allowed to receive a scholarship or participate in athletics as a freshman; Maturi said the university has only had one non-qualifier in his four previous years at Minnesota.

But critics and media reports have pointed to abuses of the Clearinghouse process -- with athletes attending phantom schools, receiving high school diplomas from specialized prep schools or gaining inflated grades from friendly high school faculty.

Counseling is crucial

Several former football players point to counseling as a reason for Minnesota's academic shortcomings in recent years. Maturi, who came to Minnesota in 2002, said the 2005 hiring of Mark Nelson, a new director of athletic academic counseling, is an important step in improving retention.

Minnesota's academic support budget has increased in recent years to $1 million, Nelson said, but that's $200,000 less than Wisconsin, which admitted far fewer athletes scoring below 17 on the ACT.

More money is only part of the solution, Maturi said. More critical is how counselors interact with student athletes. Minnesota's athletic counseling unit was the focus of scandal in the late 1990s involving former basketball coach Clem Haskins. Investigators found that a secretary in the academic counseling unit routinely wrote papers for players.

In reaction to the scandal, Maturi believes that the school's academic counselors were instructed to keep their distance from athletes.

Maturi and Nelson said building a personal relationship is imperative to a counselor's ability to work with students. "I believe the pendulum has gotten to the middle, where it belongs," Maturi said.

Some former football players found fault with the U's counseling unit, especially its lack of black advisers.

Danny Upchurch, who said he scored a 16 on his ACT, said his academic counselor was good. But she was white, and was there for his academic issues, not personal problems. He came to Minnesota as a father of three children.

"She couldn't relate to what I was trying to tell her," he said. "I needed somebody I could talk to, without having to talk about school all the time."

He now drives a forklift in a factory in Columbus, Ohio.

Nelson said he has hired three black full-time employees to his staff of 16.

Former football academic counselor Francine St. Clair, who left the U after the 2003-04 school year and now directs academic counseling at Northern Illinois, worries that Minnesota's decision to eliminate the General College could further damage efforts to retain athletes.

Historically, students who were not adequately prepared for college work began in General College, which was designed to help them adjust to the rigors of college.

"I can tell you if [the graduation rate for athletes] looks bad now, just wait," St. Clair said. "Abolishing General College is going to hurt them."

But Swan said the graduation rates were already poor while General College existed.

Why Minnesota?

Maturi defended the admission of athletes with low ACT scores, in general, but said that in some sports Minnesota has no choice but to take bigger academic risks than other schools.

In football-rich states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, flagship state universities get the pick of the players who combine athletic and academic talent. Throw in factors such as Minnesota's winter, the off-campus Metrodome and a 44-year-long Rose Bowl drought -- the longest in the Big Ten -- and, Maturi said, it's understandable that Minnesota would take chances.

"If you're an out-of-state kid, it's not like you're lined up to come to the University of Minnesota," Maturi said.

Admissions director Wayne Sigler said the university employs a "holistic" approach in assessing all prospective students, weighing a range of criteria and college readiness evaluators, including the ACT.

Sigler said he understands the pressure to win on the athletic field, and said he walks a fine line between being a fan of Gophers teams and upholding admission standards that allow for a wide degree of flexibility.

"The way that we sleep at night ... we're absolutely convinced at the end of every day that we have done our best to give every application a very careful, fair, consistent and honorable review," Sigler said. "Every decision is made in here, obviously, with confidentiality and privacy, but we make it as if we would have to defend that decision on the front page of newspapers or the coffee shops of Minnesota."

Staff writer Randy Furst contributed to this report.

dbrackin@startribune.com, ascoggins@startribune.com and jweiner@startribune.com