3 Reasons It's Unfair to Call D-I Basketball Players Student-Athletes

The term student-athlete is something the NCAA tries to push in all of its ads and commercials.

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"There are more than 400,000 NCAA student-athletes, and most of us will be going pro in something other than sports."

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However, when it comes to college basketball, there's been a more recent term that's come of age: one-and-done.

Each year, the best high school basketball players select a school, delaying the inevitable before they declare for the NBA Draft after their freshman year.

Sure, there are some who will opt to stay in school a few extra years, but the number of players graduating with a degree is one of the lowest in all of college sports.

When looking at the graduation success rate for college basketball teams, some of the numbers are sad in my book, and it looks like wasted money on the part of the university, as many athletes won't finish their degrees.

There are some schools, mostly Northeastern schools, where they do graduate a fair number of athletes, but everywhere else, the numbers are very troubling.

Here's a look at three reasons why it's unfair to call many college basketball players student-athletes.

3. Graduation Rate

The UConn men's basketball team was banned from next year's NCAA Tournament.

The reason—several years of low scores on the NCAA Academic Progress Rate.

And I don't think the Huskies will be the last team that is banned.

Other major Division-I schools with a score lower than 30 on the APR include Auburn (29), Georgia Tech (27) and Mississippi State (27).

Those schools will likely see themselves being banned with the next year or two, because the numbers aren't getting any better.

Schools that have already had sanctions imposed on them, including championship bans like UConn, include Southern, Chicago State and Louisiana-Monroe.

2. What Classes Are They Taking?

I'll probably catch a lot of flack for this, but when athletes don't plan on staying in school for more than a year or two, one has to wonder what classes they take to pass the time.

My guess is they'd fulfill their P.E. requirement, along with other core classes Introduction to Communications, English composition and U.S. History through 1867.

Now, some don't make it that easy and also take a math or science class, but I just don't see why a person would take a class requiring a lot of studying, if they're not planning to graduate with a degree.

When I was trying to graduate, I didn't really want to challenge myself in classes that weren't part of my major. I just wanted to take the easiest ones as possible, because I didn't want to study a subject I really had no interest in.

That's why I believe many athletes who don't plan on staying in school don't take classes that will make them work hard.

1. One-and-Dones

Do you honestly believe that Nerlens Noel and Shabazz Muhammad are going to come back to school after their freshman years?

Do you honestly believe they will go to class after their freshman basketball season concludes?

These guys are only going to care about one thing—making it to the NBA.

After the 2006 rule by the NBA that made players wait for a year after high school, basketball players are now forced to go to college for one year (somewhere they don't even want to be) and then enter the draft.

Guys like Anthony Davis, Austin Rivers and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist did it after their freshman years, while guys like Harrison Barnes and Jared Sullinger at least waited until after their sophomore years.

Regardless, that amounted in wasted money by their schools, and it is another reason why it's hard to call these guys student-athletes.