Division I student-athletes are graduating at a far higher rate than previously reported, according to the NCAA’s new Graduation Success Rate data released Monday.
According to GSR results, 76 percent of scholarship student-athletes entering school from 1995-98 earned diplomas within six years. That differs from 62 percent under the U.S. Department of Education-mandated graduation calculation for the same period.
The difference can be explained in how the NCAA is now tracking graduation rates. Whereas the federal government tracks only the graduation rates of scholarship athletes who initially enrolled as freshmen, the GSR formula also includes transfer students.
An athletic program’s GSR is enhanced when an incoming transfer from a junior college or another four-year school earns a diploma. Conversely, when a student-athlete exits a program, points are not deducted from a school’s GSR if that player departed school in good academic standing.
“The GSR will be more fair in the long run,” Colorado State athletic director Mark Driscoll said.
The case of former Ohio State linebacker Greg Bellisari shows how flawed the federal graduation rate can be. A Big Ten all-academic selection, Bellisari left before graduating to chase an NFL dream, and thus counted against the Buckeyes’ graduation rate. But Bellisari was anything but an academic failure. After playing for Tampa Bay from 1997-99, he returned to school and earned a medical degree last June. He is in residency at Ohio State’s medical center.
A larger data pool is tracked under the NCAA’s GSR calculation than the federal survey. For entering classes from 1995-98, the GSR data tracked 91,051 Division I student-athletes. The federally mandated formula included 67,277 students in the same time frame.
NCAA president Myles Brand said he will urge the Department of Education to adopt the GSR.
“Students are more mobile than they have been,” Brand said. “We must respect that migration of students to get accurate data.”
For Front Range Division I teams, GSR percentages exceeded those of the federal rates for nearly every sport. Some increases were dramatic. Colorado State’s graduation rate for men’s basketball jumped from 13 percent under the federal calculation to a GSR of 47 percent. The Colorado’s men’s basketball program showed a similar gain, from 29 percent to 54 percent. The graduation rate for Wyoming’s football program improved from 46 percent to 79 percent. For Denver women’s basketball, the graduation rate went from 50 percent to 100 percent.
Although a jump in graduation numbers is encouraging, GSR data for some Front Range schools in football and men’s basketball continue to lag behind national averages.
“Until our GSR is 100 in every sport, we have work to do,” CSU’s Driscoll said.
The overall GSR data for universities will be released by the NCAA in February. At that time, new Academic Progress Rates will be revealed and penalties could be imposed on athletic programs showing poor academic performance.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
