Oct. 3, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; October 3, 2007 - Student-athletes from 21 of Penn State's 25 teams earned a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) at or above 80 percent according to statistical information released today by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Ten Penn State squads earned a Graduation Success Rate of 100 percent. Nittany Lion student-athletes improved from the 19 (80 percent or higher) and eight (100 percent) figures from the 2006 NCAA GSR report.
The Division I national Graduation Success Rate average was 77 percent. Twenty-two of 25 Penn State teams earned a GSR score above the national GSR average for their respective sport.
Track and field and cross country are counted as one sport in the four-year data, bringing Penn State's total of 29 varsity programs to 25 for the NCAA survey.
Since 1990, the NCAA has annually released graduation rate information on institutions nationwide from data collected by the U.S. Department of Education. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the team GSR data. The data released today is for students entering in the fall of 1997 through 2000.
Later this year, the NCAA will release each institution's overall Graduation Success Rate and federal graduation rate for students entering in the fall of 1997 through 2000.
The 10 Nittany Lion teams posting a perfect 100 percent Graduation Success Rate were: field hockey, men's golf, women's golf, men's gymnastics, women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse, men's soccer, softball, women's tennis and women's volleyball.
Six of the 10 teams earned their third consecutive GSR score of 100 percent: field hockey, men's golf, women's golf, women's gymnastics, women's lacrosse and women's tennis.
In addition to the 10 squads with perfect GSR scores, six other Penn State teams were at 90 percent or higher: women's basketball (90), women's cross country/track and field (96), women's soccer (94), women's swimming and diving (96), men's tennis (90) and men's volleyball (90).
Five additional Penn State programs earned a GSR score of 80 percent or better: men's cross country/track and field (86), men's fencing (86), women's fencing (80), men's swimming and diving (88) and wrestling (80), for a total of 21 Penn State teams with a GSR of 80 percent or better, the Division I goal of NCAA President Myles Brand.
The Penn State football team earned a Graduation Success Rate of 76 percent, easily above the national GSR average of 67 percent. For the second consecutive year, Coach Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions posted the second highest GSR among teams in the Big Ten Conference, trailing only Northwestern.
The Penn State men's and women's basketball teams also were above the GSR national averages for their sports.
The Graduation Success Rate data includes only student-athletes receiving athletic aid and is generated from four years of graduation data. The GSR data also includes student-athlete transfers to Penn State that receive athletic aid.
In the calculation of the GSR data, institutions are no longer penalized when a student-athlete leaves a school, if he or she would have been eligible to compete the next term had he or she returned to the institution. Schools are still held accountable for those student-athletes that exhaust their eligibility and do not graduate and then leave the institution.
Penn State's institutional Graduation Success Rate was 86 percent, according to the NCAA's 2006-07 GSR release, compared to a 78 percent average for all Division I-A institutions.
Penn State student-athletes, who have won nine Big Ten Championships and two NCAA Championships the past two years, consistently have been among the nation's most successful in earning their degrees. Among some of the other recent accomplishments of Penn State student-athletes and the staff of the Morgan Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes are:
- Thirteen Nittany Lions have earned ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America honors the past two years, including eight in 2006-07. Paul Posluszny was selected the 2006 Academic All-American of the Year in Division I football. Penn State's 129 Academic All-Americans all-time rank No. 4 nationally among all NCAA institutions.
- A total of 245 Nittany Lion student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2006-07, tied for the second-highest total in the 13 years of the program. Penn State's 2,798 honorees over the past 13 years lead all Big Ten schools.
- Among the 1999-2000 entering freshman class, a record-tying 83 percent of Penn State student-athletes earned degrees within six years, compared to 64 percent for all Division I-A institutions, according to the NCAA. For the third time in the past five years, Penn State was tied for the highest graduation rate among the nation's I-A public institutions.
- Penn State's 81 percent four-year graduation rate is well above the Division I-A national average of 63 percent for student-athletes. The four-year average was second highest in the Big Ten to Northwestern.
- African-American student-athletes at Penn State consistently graduate at much higher percentages than at other Division I-A institutions. The 71 percent four-year federal rate marked the 16th straight year that Penn State's graduation rate for African-American student-athletes topped the African-American figures for Division I-A. At all Division I-A institutions in the NCAA compilation, the African-American four-year graduation percentile was 52 percent.
The University's African-American student-athlete Graduation Success Rate was 77 percent, significantly higher than the Division I-A national GSR average of 61 percent.
- Eight Nittany Lion student-athletes were selected 2007 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholars, the highest total of any Big Ten institution.