The NCAA released data Wednesday that showed the graduation rate for a set of Bowl Subdivision football players who transferred more than once was 27% lower than those who stayed put their entire career, numbers it portrayed as a “warning sign” in the ongoing legal wrangling over eligibility and player movement.
The NCAA provided the data to The Associated Press during a season in which it is being sued around the country by players seeking a fifth year of eligibility, with that fifth year almost always involving a transfer. Courts have ruled against the NCAA's new elibility rules in multiple cases.
The statistics analyzed the six-year graduation rate — considered on time when redshirts and other factors were weighed in — for around 36,000 athletes who enrolled in college in the 2018-19 school year. Black athletes across all sports saw the most precipitous decline — from an 82% graduation rate with no transfers, to 74% with one and 62% with more than one.
The data showed that regardless of race, gender or sport, multiple transfers typically had graduation rates 10 percentage points lower than those who transferred once and 15 to 20 percentage points lower than peers who never transferred.
“This data should serve as a flashing red warning sign that the court-imposed transfer rules are resulting in worse academic outcomes for many student-athletes,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “But thankfully Congress is closer than ever to passing a bill to reverse this trend.”
The Protect College Sports Act, which faces an uncertain future in the House, would curtail future eligibility lawsuits against the NCAA, though the current legal actions would not be impacted.
Among other data provided by the NCAA:
— While the FBS players saw a 28% decline in the graduation rate between non-transfers and multiple transfers, the number was 21% for players in the smaller-school Championship Subdivision.
— In women's basketball, the rate fell from 90% for non-transfers to 77% for multiple transfers.
— Men's basketball actually saw an uptick in graduation rates for non-transfers (74%) to those who transfer once (80%). Often, those transfers play their final year at a different college after earning their degree at the original school. But the number drops to 67% for multiple transfers.
— The graduation gap for Black athletes who didn't change schools and those with multiple transfers was 20%, while for white athletes it was 14%.
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FILE - The NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis is seen on March 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
DALLAS (AP) — Rapper Yella Beezy was found guilty on Wednesday of hiring the gunman who fatally shot rapper MO3 in a brazen daylight attack on a busy Dallas interstate in 2020.
Yella Beezy, 35, whose real name is Markies Conway, was unanimously convicted of capital murder by a Dallas County jury in the death of MO3, whose real name was Melvin Noble. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In September, a jury found Kewon White guilty of capital murder for fatally shooting Noble. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors said the killing was the result of an yearslong escalating feud between Conway and Noble. Both men lived in Dallas.
“We don’t know what turned it for the jurors. … We appreciate the verdict,” lead prosecutor Tommy Adams told reporters. “We think they got it right today.”
“It’s been one of the most challenging cases over the last six years,” he added.
Prosecutors said Conway paid White $40,000 for the shooting.
Noble, 28, was driving on Interstate 35 in south Dallas around noon on Nov. 11, 2020, when White pulled alongside him, authorities said. White stepped out of his vehicle holding a gun. Noble got out of his own vehicle and began running on the freeway as White shot at him, authorities said.
Prosecutor Tommy Adams said White wore a mask and fired over 40 rounds from an AK-47-style pistol while chasing Noble.
White shot Noble and a bystander who was inside a car, police said. The bystander survived, but Noble died at a hospital.
During closing arguments, prosecutors showed jurors a video clip of Conway talking about revenge in an interview, saying he would “get his lick back.” Prosecutor Krystal Biggins drew a comparison between Noble’s killing and a roadway shooting that injured Conway in 2018.
In October 2018, Conway survived being shot while driving on a tollway in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville when someone pulled up next to him and opened fire, hitting him three times.
“This was for the world to see,” Biggins said. “Over a rap beef, we are here for capital murder.”
The defense argued that prosecutors did not prove their case. “This is capital murder, and the state has brought you a lot of speculation,” defense attorney John Gussio said.
Noble had more than 800,000 Instagram followers and was best known for a 2019 remix of “Errybody,” with Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rapper Boosie Badazz.
Conway is best known for his 2017 single, “That’s On Me,” and the 2019 song “Bacc At It Again” with Quavo and Gucci Mane.
Musician Yella Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, passes through a metal detector as he enters the court after a break in his murder-for-hire trial in Dallas, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Musician Yella Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, stands in court during his murder-for-hire trial in Dallas, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Musician Yella Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, center, walks in the court's hallway during a break in his murder-for-hire trial in Dallas, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Musician Yella Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, sits in court during his murder-for-hire trial in Dallas, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
