Duncan suggested as such on Tuesday during a media conference call. He believes teams with graduation rates of less than 40 percent should be banned from postseason play. The proposal would have kept a dozen teams from playing in this year's tournament, including the University of Kentucky, a top seed.

"Not that many teams would be ineligible. Over time, I think we should set a higher bar," said Duncan. "We're trying to prepare students for life, not just to get W's on the court."

Maryland, California, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Washington, Tennessee, Baylor, Missouri, New Mexico State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Louisville are the other teams in this year's tournament that would be ineligible under Duncan's proposal. Maryland's eight percent graduation rate was the lowest.

Terrapins Head Coach Gary Williams, however, disputed the information, which came from a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida. The formula used in the research does not include academically eligible athletes who transfer to other schools or leave early to join the NBA. The numbers measure six-year graduation rates for the freshman classes that entered college from the 1999-2000 through 2002-03 school years.

"Obviously, those years we had players leave early and they're millionaires now, and they're coming back to get their degrees, just like other guys have come back and gotten their degrees," Williams told the Washington Post. "Plus we've graduated, let's see, I think it's 10 out of 12 and most recently of our seniors, we'll graduate all four of our seniors this year. Our academic support system has completely changed since 1999-2003. That is ancient facts, and you know it."

The NCAA issued a statement in response to Duncan's proposal, which said that while the association is also concerned about some schools' low graduation rates, a postseason ban would not be an acceptable way to remedy the situation as graduation rates are based on past athletes, not the ones currently on the team. As an alternative, the NCAA believes its Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a much better indicator of academic success.

"With APR also comes real accountability for the students and their institutions," the statement says. "Teams that do not meet the minimum score of 925 for two years in a row are in jeopardy of losing a scholarship. Seventy percent of the teams participating in this year's tournament are above the level at which a team could face a penalty. Teams that do not make changes and improve their academic performance could face postseason competition bans. This system is in place and addresses the problem of habitually under-performing teams."

Inside Higher Ed recently used APR scores to fill out an NCAA tournament bracket, always advancing the school with the better score. This was the fifth year Inside Higher Ed filled out a bracket this way, with Bucknell, Holy Cross, Davidson, and actual champion North Carolina winning the first four years. The 2010 version has a pair of number-one seeds--Kansas and Duke--advancing to the Final Four along with seventh-seeded BYU and Texas, an eighth seed. The Jayhawks took home the APR championship.

The Central Florida study also found a growing disparity between graduation rates for white and black players on teams in the NCAA tournament. According to the report, 45 teams (79 percent) graduated 70 percent or more of their white players, but only 20 teams (31 percent) achieved the same threshold with black players. The 48 percent gap is a significant increase over last year's 26 percent gap.

However, Dr. Richard Lapchick, Director at Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, writes in the report that while race continues to be an academic issue, it is important to recognize that black basketball players do graduate at a higher rate than black males who are not student athletes.

"The graduation rate for African‐American male students as a whole is only 38 percent, a full 18 percent lower than for African‐American basketball student‐athletes," he writes. "Presently, too many of our predominantly white campuses are not welcoming places for students of color, whether or not they are athletes. There are lessons that our campuses could learn from athletics."

Two schools, California and Maryland, graduated zero percent of black basketball players, according to the study. One school on the other end of the spectrum is Xavier, which graduated 88 percent of black players and 89 percent overall.

The Musketeers, similar to other schools, lean heavily on academic advisers, such as Sister Rose Ann Fleming, a 77-year-old nun who, since beginning her position in 1985, has helped every men's basketball player who played as a senior leave school with a diploma. Xavier also has the 11th highest APR in this year's tournament field.

"Our alumni over the years have told me that they're so proud of the graduation rates," Fleming told the New York Times. "They don't want to hear about Xavier, or any university, using students athletically and then dumping them without a degree."

Mike Phelps is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.