Concerned about the low graduation rates of men’s basketball players, the NCAA announced today that it was forming a committee to study the problem and propose ideas to fix it.

The committee, made up of more than 20 college presidents, athletics directors, conference commissioners, and coaches, will examine why so many basketball players have academic problems. The panel will also look at potential roadblocks to the students’ success, including the length of the season and the kind of academic support available on most campuses.

The group will be led by Dan Guerrero, director of athletics at the University of California at Los Angeles, who served on a similar committee that looked into the academic plight of baseball players. The basketball panel will present its findings and make recommendations to the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors no later than 2008.

The committee features an all-star cast of athletics officials, including Kevin Weiberg, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference; Michael L. Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference; and Jim Boeheim, head men’s basketball coach at Syracuse University. —Lauren Smith