You may have seen the new study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida indicating that, among other things, 43 of the teams in this year’s NCAA men’s hoops tournament are graduating at least 50% of their players. (Press Release | Table of Gradiation Rates)

I’m not going to rant about the state of academics in college sports in general and I’m not going to make fun of the term “student athlete.” I’m not going to dog other schools, either – you know who you are and can manage your own disgrace without my pontifications (not that I’m always opposed to pontification, mind you – just not going there today).

But I am going to raise hell about my alma mater. Wake Forest is graduating, according to the UCF report, a mere 44% of its men’s basketball players and is only getting 76% of its athletes overall out the door with a sheepskin. Sorry, but that is not acceptable. Wake is the #27 ranked national university in America, and its athletic graduation rates should not only exceed 50% in the men’s hoops category, they should be among the national leaders in all categories. Duke is graduating 58%, Stanford is at 92%, and UNC, which ranks a couple slots behind us in the academic rankings, is at 67%.

I know that graduation rates are more complicated than they often seem at first glance – once you factor in transfers, flunk-outs, drop-outs, and the like you’d be surprised how low grad rates for all students are, so yeah, 50% is actually not as bad as it may sound. I get that.

But there is no excuse for Wake not to at least match the performance of UNC on this criterion. Carolina is a great school, no doubt, and Wake has an obligation to get within a few percentage points sooner rather than later. Skip Prosser is a smart, thoughtful coach, and I hope I speak for all of my fellow alums when I say we don’t expect better, we demand the best. Period.