[Farm93]

I suspect it is not that easy at some schools to just blame the student-athlete.  In some programs if you are not producing on the field you will lose your scholarship.  (see SEC) That threat is not really applicable at Stanford, but it is real in some places.  If that threat is a reality, then I am willing to believe that type of environment makes it much harder to graduate.

Then in other places there are limited class schedules.  At Stanford only the least organized athletes will not be able to find a suitable collection of courses to satisfy the requirements of their major.  However, at many schools even one or two missed classes in a cycle can make it impossible to graduate in 5 years (see UCB).  Layer in midweek games or strict on-campus test policies and it may not even be possible to get all of the classes required while on scholarship.  While it is fun to blame JT or the athletes for UCB's graduation results, I suspect UCB is the real problem there.  In UCBs case I really believe the school's sink or swim philosophy is the problem.

For Stanford, I do think that the players should be expected to figure it out, but I am willing to acknowledge that it is not quite so easy to balance everything at some places, for a variety of reasons.

[Farm93]

I suspect it is not that easy at some schools to just blame the student-athlete.  In some programs if you are not producing on the field you will lose your scholarship.  (see SEC) That threat is not really applicable at Stanford, but it is real in some places.  If that threat is a reality, then I am willing to believe that type of environment makes it much harder to graduate.

Then in other places there are limited class schedules.  At Stanford only the least organized athletes will not be able to find a suitable collection of courses to satisfy the requirements of their major.  However, at many schools even one or two missed classes in a cycle can make it impossible to graduate in 5 years (see UCB).  Layer in midweek games or strict on-campus test policies and it may not even be possible to get all of the classes required while on scholarship.  While it is fun to blame JT or the athletes for UCB's graduation results, I suspect UCB is the real problem there.  In UCBs case I really believe the school's sink or swim philosophy is the problem.

For Stanford, I do think that the players should be expected to figure it out, but I am willing to acknowledge that it is not quite so easy to balance everything at some places, for a variety of reasons.