Re: Jeb Bush goes too far in defending Florida State’s mascot

[RyanKeymaster]

Bart wrote:

When Jeb Bush, like many Americans, says college athletes, he means football players and maybe basketball players. I suspect that this is especially true in Florida, Texas, and other football hotspots. Of course football and basketball players may also have a higher than average graduation rate. Although I suspect it’s lower at bigtime football schools such as Florida State.

If you narrow it down to top 25 Division 1 programs in one or two sports, maybe you’ll see a lower rate but that is no reflection at all of NCAA athletes in general. You’re talking well under 1% of the total NCAA student-athlete population once you narrow things down that far. To make claims that the NCAA has an issue with graduation rates is blatantly false outside of rare exceptions, which we can find in any portion of the student population. At best, he badly misstated the issue he was trying to make. More likely, he attempted to take a pot shot at the NCAA and, in doing so, got caught spreading false allegations. Either way, his statement did little more than insult and detract from the image of past, present, and future college athletes.