Wednesday, December 6, 2023
by Evan O'Kelly, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Maintaining a standard of academic excellence, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference ranked in the upper-third of NCAA Division II athletic conferences in the latest federal graduation metrics released by the NCAA on Wednesday.

The GNAC posted a federal graduation rate of 65%, marking the fourth consecutive year it has achieved that landmark and just one percentage point off the highest ever mark of 66% achieved in last year’s metrics. The conference also maintained its highest ever academic success rate of 80% for the third consecutive year, and its highest ever graduation rate among all students of 58% for the second consecutive year.

Overall, the GNAC ranked tied for sixth among the 23 NCAA Division II conferences in federal graduation rate and 10th in academic success rate. The metrics track freshman student-athletes who entered college between 2013 and 2016 and are based on a six-year cohort as prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.

“All credit for these impressive conference-wide rates goes to our student-athletes, coaches and administrators,” said GNAC commissioner Dave Haglund. “Especially pleasing are the conference trend lines in both of these metrics. The focus our member institutions place on academic achievement is appropriately revealed in this annual report.”

Men’s soccer had the highest federal graduation rate (67%) and academic success rate (83%) among the conference’s men’s sports, while women’s rowing led the conference’s women’s sports with an FGR of 88% and an ASR of 96%. In total, 11 of the 14 sports that the conference offers were above the national averages in both FGR and ASR.

Overall, Division II’s federal graduation rate of 60% and academic success rate of 77% both indicated upward trends.

The academic success rate differs from the federal graduation rate in that it accounts for the outcomes of student-athletes who transfer from one institution to another (and removes students who left the institution in good academic standing). Because of this, the ASR captures approximately 40% more student-athletes than the federal rate.

The Division II ASR also measures outcomes for more than 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.