SoCon excels in annual Graduation Success Rate data

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference exceled in the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores released Tuesday, exceeding the FCS average in seven men’s sports including baseball, basketball and football, and six women’s sports.
 
“The outstanding graduation success rates of the SoCon institutions are a leading indicator of the educational commitment of the student-athletes that compete across The Southern Conference,” SoCon Commissioner Michael Cross said. “Our institutions highly value academic success and knowing their student-athletes are graduating at high rates shows how much the faculty, coaches and athletics staff encourage academic achievement. The intellectual development of student-athletes and their academic success across the SoCon is a tremendous point of pride and celebration!”
  
Thirty-seven SoCon women’s programs and 27 men’s programs achieved perfect scores of 100 for the 2013-16 cohorts. All 10 league schools had at least one men’s program earn a perfect score, while each SoCon schools had at least two women’s programs earn a 100.
 
Samford and Mercer each had five men’s teams post 100 scores, while Samford had seven women’s programs achieve the benchmark. Samford led all SoCon schools with a total of 12 perfect scores, while Furman and Wofford were tied for second with nine apiece.
 
Samford had a league-best overall GSR of 98 as 12 of the Bulldogs’ 13 programs achieved a perfect score of 100. Overall, five league schools posted overall scores of 90 or better.
 
For the fifth year in a row, Samford was the lone SoCon school to exceed the FCS average in every sport it sponsors.
 
Volleyball, women’s tennis and women’s golf top the women’s sports with seven programs achieving a perfect score in each sport. The SoCon’s mixed rifle squads led the conference with an average score of 100, followed closely by volleyball and women’s tennis, which each posted a 98.
 
Eight SoCon men’s basketball teams exceeded the FCS average of 85, with Furman, UNCG, Samford and Western Carolina posting perfect scores. Eight league football programs topped the FCS average of 79, with Furman and Wofford leading the way with scores of 94. The conference average was 87, eight points higher than the FCS average.
 
On the women’s side, tennis and volleyball both turned in average GSRs of 98. Furman, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford turned in perfect women’s tennis scores, as did The Citadel, ETSU, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford for volleyball.
 
Five league women’s basketball programs exceeded the FCS average of 92, with Mercer, Samford, Chattanooga and Western Carolina all turning in 100s.
 
Each SoCon women’s sport had three or more institutions post perfect scores.
 
Developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative, the GSR is used to assess the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR measures graduation rates at Division I institutions and includes students transferring into the institutions. The GSR also allows schools to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions prior to graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.
 
ABOUT THE GSR
The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately measure the success of Division I student-athletes.
• The GSR takes into account the many different academic paths followed by today’s college students.
• Unlike the federal graduation rate, the GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.
• By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by approximately 37 percent.
• Under the GSR calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. These outgoing transfers are essentially passed to the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.
• The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, because it is the only rate to compare student-athletes to the general student body.
• This year marks the 22nd year of GSR data that have been collected. The NCAA began collecting GSR data with the entering freshman class of 1995. The latest entering class for which data are available is 2016.