Big South Achieves its Highest Graduation Success Rate
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – The Big South Conference achieved its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in 2017, according to data released today by the NCAA. The data, collected for student-athletes who entered college in 2010, showed 86 percent of Big South student-athletes graduated within six years. It is the conference’s fourth consecutive year at or above the 84 percentile.
“Big South student-athletes once again continue to impress,” stated Big South Commissioner Kyle Kallander. “I am so proud of their efforts. Of course the ultimate goal is to attain a degree and be successful in life. But to achieve this high level of academic success while also excelling in athletic competition and in the community is deserving of our ultimate compliments. The Big South truly is Where Winners Are Made.”
Big South men’s basketball student-athletes posted an 86 percent GSR -- tied for 10th in Division I. Women’s basketball posted a 93 percentage for the third time in five years, the highest of any conference sport in the report and tied for 12th nationally. Baseball recorded an 87 percent GSR (tied for 8th in Division I).
The Graduation Success Rate is a method the NCAA developed to measure academic success of a program’s student-athletes. The GSR formula, intended to be a more complete and accurate look at student-athlete success, removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initial enrollment elsewhere. The NCAA reported a record-high 87 percent GSR for all Division I schools.
The conference’s GSR comes on the heels of its Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) of 66 percent -- the highest in at least four years and an improvement of four percentage points from 2016. Women’s basketball’s FGR was 69 percent, which is 10th-best in the NCAA.
Since the NCAA began tracking GSR with the class of student-athletes who entered in 1995, the overall rate has increased 13 percentage points from 74 to 87, which translates to 22,632 more graduates than if the rate had stayed the same.