Wednesday, January 28, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference ranks among the top NCAA Division II conferences nationally in federal graduation rates and Academic Success Rates (ASR) according to the latest figures provided by the NCAA.

Each year the NCAA announces both rates for all Division II institutions.  The latest Academic Success Rates are based on the freshmen student-athletes who entered college in 2004.  The graduation-rate data are based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.

Among the 24 NCAA Division II conferences, the GNAC ranks sixth overall with a 61 percent federal graduation rate for its student-athletes.  That is five points higher than the 56 percent rate for all students at GNAC institutions.

The GNAC trails only the Northeast 10 Conference (71 percent), the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (64 percent), the Great Lakes Valley Conference (64 percent), the Sunshine State Conference (62 percent) and  the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (62 percent) in the U.S. Department of Education rankings.

Unlike the federal graduation rate, the Academic Success Rate accounts for the academic outcomes of student-athletes who transfer from one institution to another. 

With a 74 percent ASR, the GNAC ranks seventh overall among the 24 Division II conferences. The Division II ranking is unique in that it measures graduation outcomes for student-athletes who are not receiving athletically related financial aid.

That data, combined with the assessment of transfer student-athletes, means that the Division II compilation evaluates nearly twice as many student-athletes as the study undertaken through the Federal Student Right-to-Know Act.