UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State records its third highest winter 2022-23 Academic All-Big Ten total with 102 student-athletes earning a 3.0 or higher GPA. The all-time highest winter selection was reached last year in 2021-22 when the Nittany Lions had 123 student-athletes honored with this achievement.
To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be on a varsity team, as verified by being on the official squad list as of March 1 for winter sports, who have been enrolled full-time at the institution for a minimum of 12 months and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
Molly Carson, a sophomore on the women's swimming & diving team, was the lone student-athlete to earn an unblemished GPA.
Among those on the list of winter Academic All-Big Ten honorees is women's basketball's Makenna Marsia, who earned her second consecutive College Sports Communicators' Academic All-American Third Team selection this winter. In total, Penn State has earned 233 Academic All-America honors in program history.
The women's swimming & diving team led Penn State for the fifth consecutive year with 24 Academic All-Big Ten honorees. The men's swimming & diving team earned 13 honorees, giving the program a total of 37 for the winter awards. The men's hockey team followed women's swimming & diving with 19 selections and the National Champion wrestling program landed 15 team members on the Academic All-Big Ten list.
Team by Team Honorees
Women's Swimming & Diving – 24
Men's Hockey – 19
Wrestling – 16
Women's Gymnastics – 13
Men's Swimming & Diving – 13
Men's Gymnastics – 7
Men's Basketball – 5
Women's Basketball – 6
The Penn State athletic department registered 109 fall honorees. The latest 102 winter selections bring Penn State's total academic honorees to 8,088 since 1991-92.
Penn State Highest Winter Academic All-Big Ten Totals (3.0 GPA):
2021-22 – 123*
2020-21 – 106#
2022-23 – 102
2018-19 – 91
2019-20 – 82
2015-16 – 79
* - School record
# - alternative grading due to COVID-19 pandemic
Graduation Success Rates
Penn State student-athletes continue to register record-breaking graduation rates and perform well above their peers nationwide. The Nittany Lions posted a record-tying 92% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 10 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the sixth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom, according to data reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The NCAA's annual graduation rates report of Division I institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 92% to tie the school's all-time record of 92, which was previously set in the 2020 and 2021 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students posted a 92% graduation rate compared to the 89% average for all Division I institutions for students entering from 2012-13 through the 2015-16 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a Graduation Success Rate in the 88-92% range during each of the past 16 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-breaking 92% report in the last three reports.
Twenty-one of the Nittany Lions' 27 teams (men's and women's track and field/cross country teams combined) earned a Graduation Success Rate at or above the Division I national GSR average of 89%.
The 10 Nittany Lion squads posting 100% Graduation Success Rate scores were: women's fencing, field hockey, men's golf, women's golf, women's hockey, women's swimming & diving, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's volleyball and wrestling.
Penn State Among the Nation's Most Comprehensive and Successful Athletic Programs
Under the leadership of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). The Nittany Lions' 31 programs are tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
