NCAA ponders academic plan

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA wants to improve graduation rates and is considering penalties for schools that under-perform academically.
A possible punishment would prohibit a school from giving a failed student's athletic scholarship to someone else. That proposal was added to a Division I academic reform package that could go to the NCAA management council and board of directors for action next April, NCAA president Myles Brand said.
The NCAA has increased the number of core high school courses required for freshman eligibility from 14 to 16 and required this year's freshmen to have completed 40 percent of their degree requirements by the start of their third year.
Now the NCAA is asking its members to report yearly data on their scholarship athletes. That information will be gathered for two years. Each school will be notified next fall whether it would have been subject to a penalty had the reforms already been in place.
Other penalties could include probation, loss of scholarships, denial of postseason competition and restricted membership status.
Last month, the NCAA released a report that showed 62 percent of Division I scholarship athletes who entered college in 1996 graduated within six years. That was 2 percent higher than the year before and 3 percent higher than the graduation rate of non-athletes.