Perspective

+ Percentage of the 4,000+ students who play Division 1 men’s basketball who will go on to professional sports careers: 0.8

+ Percentage of NCAA men’s basketball players who entered college in 1997 and had graduated by 2003: 44

+ Number of the teams in last year’s March Madness, out of 65, that would not have qualified to play for the national championship if a 50-percent graduation rate was required for players: 43

+ Approximate number of colleges that last year “asked the NCAA for leniency” when it began handing out penalties to teams that had not met the Academic Progress Rate standards: 400

+ Average salary of a worker with a bachelor’s degree in 2004, according the U.S. Census Bureau: $51,206, versus $27,915 for a high school graduate

+ Average revenues for a Division 1-A athletic program in 2003: $29.4 million, up 17.2 percent from 2001

Graduation Madness, indeed.