Sports and academia

This may not have been the best time for Education Secretary Arne Duncan to suggest banning some basketball teams from postseason play if their graduation rates fall below 40 percent. That would have eliminated a dozen teams from the NCAA men's basketball tournament, USA Today reported.

The numbers the secretary cited do not include transfers or players who depart college for the NBA. They cover the most recent four-year classes that have had six years to graduate.

Mr. Duncan's point is: "If you can't graduate two out of five of your student-athletes, how serious are you about the academic part of your mission?" Yet the department cannot impose this rule, only suggest it.

But the NCAA already has rules in place governing academic eligibility. It has a formula called the APR that examines how well schools do at retaining athletes, keeping them eligible and graduating them. Would sidelining talented athletic teams in the postseason encourage academic excellence?

Better let the NCAA and its member schools decide such questions.