For college athletics, discussions of graduation rates equate to paper cuts rubbed with salt. Despite positive trends, there always will be lingering pain. It's unavoidable.

Jacksonville State's football team — hardly the NCAA's biggest concern — provides a 2009 example.

The Gamecocks, one of the best teams in their conference, are ineligible for the playoffs this year because of their lackluster APR, or Academic Progress Rate. Despite concerted efforts by JSU's athletic department to improve classroom performances, the football squad is paying the price for too many years of underachieving results. Failure to meet NCAA benchmarks also has brought penalties to JSU's men's basketball team.

Let's expect those who oversee the NCAA's academic requirements have JSU's full and undivided attention.

The relevance is that JSU is enduring its era of academic tribulation as the NCAA is touting what it calls historic levels of classroom excellence among its schools. In Jacksonville, the irony should be impossible to miss.

This week, the NCAA released data that said nearly 4 out of 5 college athletes graduate on time — an all-time high. Likewise, new federal statistics show that college athletes still are more likely to graduate on time than are students who don't play sports.

NCAA numbers say 79 percent of all freshman athletes who enrolled in the 2002-03 school year graduated within six years.

NCAA numbers say an impressive percentage (88 percent) of female athletes continued to graduate on time.

But, a warning: Beware universal acceptance of these statistics. College presidents should be appalled that the underbelly of NCAA academics remains a dark, dank place.

The NCAA can't hide the fact that the Big Three sports — football, men's basketball and baseball — often post tepid graduation rates. In the latest NCAA findings, none of those sports posted rates above 70 percent.

In fact, in the federal report — which trends lower than NCAA numbers — men's basketball's graduation rate was 48 percent, and teams in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) posted a graduation rate of only 54 percent. Football Bowl Subdivision teams (formerly I-A) fared somewhat better, but not enough to stick a thumb in this dike of disappointing news in either the NCAA or federal statistics.

Do not ignore the realities that encircle college athletics. A portion of players in certain sports comes from low-income backgrounds that may not adequately prepare them for the rigors of college academics. If their grades sag, it allows sideline critics to assume it was athletic prowess, not academic ability, that earned them a spot in a school's freshman class.

Neither schools nor students win when a player is saddled with the dumb-jock label. It's unbecoming and demeaning for both.

In that respect, little has changed. Universities face a tug-of-war between competing interests — academic integrity on one side, athletic success on the other. History proves that marrying the two can lead to despair if a questionable student struggles with his grades, or when a school — such as JSU — is penalized for its academic missteps.

Clearly, the NCAA wants the bright picture publicized. Its successes deserve as much. But don't think the need for classroom improvements for college athletes is a relic of the past.