Last time I checked, each of the teams playing in each of these bowl games were college teams. Last time I checked, colleges exist to educated people and the standard by which that education is measured is a degree. Yet, almost two-thirds of college football’s 56 bowl-bound programs have player graduation rates lower than the 54% average in NCAA Division I-A. The NCAA uses graduation rates as the primary factor in its Academic Progress Rating. OK, but the goal is only 50% in the first place. In other words, the NCAA says it is OK to graduate 51% of your players.

While the NCAA may deem this acceptable, how can an organization that has as its mission the education of students deem that acceptable? But clearly, many don’t even make it to that low hurdle. Check out the high and low performers

The Top Five School Football Graduation Rate
Navy 95
Notre Dame 94
Northwestern 92
Boston Col. 92
Vanderbilt 91

The Bottom Five School Football Graduation Rate
Arizona 41
Hawaii 42
Oklahoma 46
Georgia 48
Georgia Tech 48
Fresno St. 48

Let’s review. Colleges exist to make money. Whoops, did I say that out loud? Sorry. Colleges exist to educate people and make a positive impact on society. How can they do that if only 50% of their student athletes are graduating? What positive impact will a poorly educated former offensive guard have on society?

Now, let’s get to the real point of this post. It has nothing to do with colleges and everything to do with you and your organization. What IS the point of your business? Why do you exist? What level of success, quality, production, repeat business, etc, is your goal? 50%? Higher? How did you select this number and is it improving? If the NCAA were setting your standard you could have a 50% failure rate and it would be OK. The problem here is that business is not a bowl game. It is the real deal every day and performance like that will put you out of business.

As you enter 2009 I encourage you to develop the critical few metrics that will truly drive your business to a higher level of success and then work like crazy to achieve them. Set a high standard and engage your team to accomplish it together. Focus and discipline are required but it is worth the effort.

Next week. The One Thing.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 2:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.