SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference placed among the top of Division I in the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores released Wednesday (Nov. 5). Conference teams combined for a GSR of 88, which is the fifth-highest conference score in Division I. The GSR of 88 represents a two-point increase over last year’s mark.
Southern Conference men’s basketball programs earned the highest GSR in the nation with a score of 96 after earning a score of 83 to rank seventh nationally a year ago.
Women’s basketball posted a 90-percent graduation rate, which was tied for the 16th-highest mark. It is the third straight year that women’s basketball has earned a GSR of at least 90.
The league’s eight football teams earned a GSR of 84 percent, which ranks as the fourth-highest in all of Division I and is a nine-point increase over last season.
With a GSR of 87, the Southern Conference’s baseball programs ranked third nationally and improved two points over 2014.
All 10 Southern Conference member schools had at least one program with a 100-percent GSR for the 2005-08 cohorts. Additionally, nine of the league’s 10 schools had multiple programs report a perfect score. The Southern Conference GSR for the 2005-08 cohorts met or exceeded the Division I GSR in 12 different sports (baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country and track, football, men’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s cross country and track, women’s soccer, women’s golf, softball, women’s tennis and volleyball).
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.
Southern Conference GSR Rankings:
Sport GSR Division I Rank
All Sports 88 T-5th
Men’s Basketball 96 1st
Women’s Basketball 90 16th
Football 84 4th
Baseball 87 3rd
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 14th 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 2008.