Friday, January 22, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference is once again among the top NCAA Division II conferences nationally in federal graduation rates and academic success rates (ASR) according to data recently released by the NCAA.

Among the Division’s 24 conferences, the GNAC was tied for fourth with a 62 percent federal graduation rate for its student-athletes, a one-point improvement over numbers released last year when the conference ranked sixth. The percentage is six points higher than the rate of 56 percent for all students at GNAC member insitutions.

The GNAC was tied with the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference for fourth and trailed only the Northeast-10 Conference (70 percent), the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (65 percent) and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (64 percent).

In terms of academic success rate, the GNAC was tied for seventh out of the 24 Division II conferences at 75 percent, improving by one percentage point. The GNAC was ranked seventh in last year’s data. The Northeast-10 also leads academic success rate numbers at 86 percent.

The federal graduation rates and academic success rates are based on the performance of freshman student-athletes who entered college from 2005 to 2008. The graduation rate data is based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.

Unlike the federal graduation rate, the academic success rate accounts for the academic outcomes of student-athletes who transfer from one institution to another. The Division II academic success rate also measures outcomes for student-athletes who are not receiving athletically-related financial aid, a unique metric among NCAA divisions.