Tuesday, November 15, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the fourth straight year, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference has matched or bettered its Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) according to data released today by the NCAA.

The conference set an all-time best Federal Graduation Rate of 66%. The rate ties the GNAC for sixth among the 23 Division II conferences and is eight percentage points higher than the rate for all students at GNAC institutions. This marks the seventh straight year that the GNAC has matched or bettered its previous high in the metric.

At the same time, the GNAC tied its best Academic Success Rate of 80%, which ties the conference for ninth among Division II conferences. This marks the sixth straight year that the GNAC has matched or bettered its previous high.

Both metrics track freshman student-athletes who entered college between 2012 and 2015 and are based on a six-year cohort as prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.

“Once again, the GNAC’s conference-wide commitment to academic success is borne out of the data released today by the NCAA,” said GNAC commissioner Dave Haglund. “Most impressive is the fact that the trend lines in both metrics continue to climb. It is extremely satisfying to consistently report that the conference has established new benchmarks in these areas. All the credit goes to our student-athletes, coaches and administrators for these results.”

In men’s sports, the GNAC realized an increase in FGR in soccer and cross country/track and field and saw an increase in ASR in football, golf, soccer and cross country/track and field. Among conference women’s sports, the GNAC saw increases in FGR in rowing and volleyball and increases in ASR in golf, soccer and volleyball.

Nationwide, the national four-year ASR average remained at 76% overall while the FGR for all Division II student-athletes remained at 60%. This is eight points better than the FGR for the general student body, which remained at 52%.

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.