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.
 
“These are outstanding graduation success rate numbers for our institutions,” SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus. “I’m not surprised. Our schools value academics at the highest level and graduating their student-athletes will always be a top priority. Congrats to our student-athletes, coaches and staff who play an integral role in our academic excellence.”
 
Thirty-eight SoCon women’s programs and 27 men’s programs achieved perfect scores of 100 for the 2012-15 cohorts, an improvement of six total from last year’s GSR data. Mixed rifle is counted toward the men’s totals. Nine of the 10 league schools had at least one men’s program earn a perfect score, while eight SoCon schools had at least one women’s program earn a 100.
 
Samford and Mercer each had five men’s teams post 100 scores, while Samford and Chattanooga had seven programs apiece achieve the benchmark. Samford led all SoCon schools with a total of 12 perfect scores, while Chattanooga was second with 10 and Wofford was third with nine.
 
Samford had a league-best overall GSR of 98. Overall, seven league schools posted overall scores of 90 or better.
 
For the fourth year in a row, Samford was the lone SoCon school to exceed the FCS average in every sport it sponsors.
 
Seven of the nine SoCon volleyball programs posted perfect scores, as did seven of the nine women’s golf programs and seven of the league’s eight men’s golf programs. The SoCon’s mixed rifle squads led the conference with an average score of 100, followed closely by men’s golf at 99.
 
Eight SoCon men’s basketball teams exceeded the FCS average of 83, with Furman, UNCG, Samford, Western Carolina and Wofford posting perfect scores. Eight league football programs topped the FCS average of 78, with Samford and Wofford leading the way with scores of 94. The conference average was 86, eight points higher than the FCS average.
 
On the women’s side, softball and volleyball both turned in average GSRs of 98, each four points higher than the FCS average. Furman, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga and Western Carolina turned in perfect softball scores, as did ETSU, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford for volleyball.
 
Seven league women’s basketball programs exceeded the FCS average of 91, with Mercer, Samford, Chattanooga and Western Carolina all turning in 100s.
 
Each SoCon women’s sport had four 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 21st 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 2015.