General

ACC Teams Make Strong Showing in NCAA Graduation Success Rates

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) –­­­­­­­ The Atlantic Coast Conference’s presence in the forefront of academic success was demonstrated once again in the latest NCAA Graduation Success Rates (GSR) Report released today.

ACC institutions top the rankings among their peer conferences with an average graduation rate of 91 percent.
“The NCAA’s GSR release once again highlights the hard work of our student-athletes, coaches and schools,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “Academic excellence has been, and continues to be, a cornerstone of the league and its member institutions.”

Key notes for the ACC in comparison to peer conferences:
  • 10 of 14 ACC Football teams earned a GSR at or above the Division I average of 76. That ties for first, both in terms of percentage and in total number.
  • In the sport of football, the ACC remains the only conference to have multiple teams score 90 or higher every year since 2005. Duke (96), Wake Forest (93) and Boston College (90) reached that plateau this year. The ACC was the only peer conference this year with multiple teams posting GSR scores of 90 or higher.
  • ACC Football’s average GSR of 83 ties for first.
  • ACC Men’s Basketball ranks first with 10 of 15 teams earning a GSR at or above the Division I average of 77. Duke and Notre Dame each achieved scores of 100.
  • ACC Baseball leads with 10 of 14 teams registering a GSR above the Division I average of 79, also the most among Power 5 conferences. Four ACC Baseball teams achieved GSR scores above 90 – Clemson (100), Boston College (95), Duke (95) and Notre Dame (95).
  • ACC Women’s Basketball ranks second with 10 of its 15 teams earning a GSR above the Division I average of 89.
  • This marks the10th-straight year that the ACC has had at least four women’s basketball programs score 100, making it the only peer conference to do so. Four ACC teams – Florida State, Pitt, Virginia and Wake Forest – hit the century mark in the latest report.
  • A total of seven ACC teams achieved GSR scores of 100 in the sports of football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball.
The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students than the federal graduation rate. The federal rate counts any student who leaves a school as an academic failure, no matter whether he or she enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students. The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation makes it a more complete and accurate look at student-athlete success.

The rate also allows for a deeper understanding of graduation success in individual sports than the federal metric, which provides only broad groupings.

The federal graduation rate, however, remains the only measure to compare student-athletes with the general student body. Using this measure, student-athletes graduate at a rate two percentage points higher than the general student body — 68 percent compared with 66 percent. The difference is most stark among African-American women. Student-athletes in this demographic outpace their peers in the student body by 18 percentage points — 67 percent for student-athletes compared with 49 percent for the student body.

Federal rates also provide a long-term picture of student-athlete academic achievement. The federal rate was first collected with the class that entered college in 1984, and the rate has continued to rise over the past 25 years. When rates were first collected, the general student body earned degrees at a rate higher than student-athletes.

The rate for all Division I college athletes increased 16 points in that time. The class of African-American student-athletes who entered in 1984 graduated at a 35 percent rate, per the federal calculation. That rate is now 59 percent for the 2010 entering class. The rate among men’s basketball participants increased 10 points in that time, and the Football Bowl Subdivision rates rose 16 points.