California players may need to bear down on those books

California has shared two conference football championships since 1960. Its basketball team has won one title during that time.

Now the Bears sit atop the Pac-12 Conference schools in the least desirable standings.

Golden Bears athletes have the worst graduation rates in both sports, according to an NCAA report released Thursday.

The Bears graduated only 44% of its football players who came to school from 2003-06. Only 38% of its
basketball players had earned a degree in that time.

Not exactly the example one expects from the oldest school in the University of California system.

USC officials are wiping their brows. Cal kept USC from bottoming out. The Trojans rank 11th out of 12 schools, with a 53% rate for football players and 55% for basketball players.

Stanford, California’s Bay Area rival, was first on both lists, graduating 93% of its football players and 83% of its basketball players.

UCLA, meanwhile, gets some respect for the UC system. The Bruins graduated 82% of their football players from 2003-06, up 20% from the report from a year ago.

The Bruins lag behind in basketball, coming in just ahead of USC at 60%.

No worries, the dunce cap in the UC system is worn up north.

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