Florida ranks high in NCAA Graduation Success Rates

Special to Gatorsports.com

There are a few titles that Florida student-athletes seek during their Gator careers. NCAA champion and Southeastern Conference champion come to mind. Today’s latest NCAA release shows there is another title they seek — University of Florida graduate.

The Graduation Success Rates published Wednesday shows that 88 percent of UF student-athletes completed their degree in the latest cycle. The Gators’ latest number equals NCAA Division I’s overall GSR, which is an all-time high.

The GSR of 10 Gator teams are above the national average for their sport – women’s basketball, women’s cross country/track & field, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, women’s tennis and volleyball. Five women’s teams posted a perfect 100 GSR: golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and volleyball.

Earlier this fall, UF reached No. 7 in the public institutions ranking on US News and World Reports annual list. The combined grade point average for all Gator student-athletes for the 2018-19 academic year was 3.12 and 117 student-athletes earned bachelor or master degrees in the last academic year.

The most recent Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering freshmen classes in Division I from 2009-10 to 2012-13.

The NCAA’s most recent statistics show 89% of all athletes who enrolled in college in 2012 earned degrees, an increase of 1 percentage point over last year’s all-time high. That’s nearly 10 percentage points above the 80% goal the late NCAA President Myles Brand established when the governing body first started calculating this measure in 2002.

“Our students engaged in intercollegiate athletics continue to demonstrate excellence in both athletics and academics,” Georgetown President John DeGioia, the Division I Committee on Academics chairman, said in a statement. “These numbers — nearly 30,000 additional graduates because of the NCAA’s academic policies — show that our work is vital.”

The Football Bowl Subdivision percentage jumped 3 points to 82% — another record. Black football players in the FBS hit 78%, also a 3-point increase.

Players in the Football Championship Subdivision and Division I women’s basketball players maintained their numbers from last year at 79% and 91%, respectively.

And for the first time, every women’s sport finished with a grad rate of at least 90%..

But Division I men’s basketball players saw a 2-point drop to 79% overall while the percentage of black players fell to 79%, a 3-point decline.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.