On Wednesday morning, the NCAA released the latest of its ongoing Graduation Success Rate (GSR) reports.
The GSR measures the percentage of athletes that a program graduates in six years. The latest data covers the classes that entered college between 2000 and 2003.
Schools currently in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly Division I-A) collectively posted a 67 percent GSR. Across all sports, 79 percent of student-athletes graduate with a degree in six years or fewer. Graduation rates have steadily climbed in football, from 63 percent for the class entering school in 1995 to 69 percent for the class entering in 2003.
Among schools currently ranked in the top 25 of the BCS standings, Stanford had the best GSR score, graduating 86 percent of its players in this time period. At 44 percent, Oklahoma (Stanford’s opponent in last year’s Sun Bowl) had the worst rate among schools currently in the top 25.
In men’s basketball, the other major revenue sport, graduation rates were stagnant, staying at an average of 66 percent across all Division I schools. However, graduation rates were poor at some of the nation’s top programs–12 of the teams in the season’s final top-25 poll had graduation rates below 50 percent. California had the lowest score, with a 30-percent graduation rate, followed closely by Connecticut with 31 percent. National champion Duke and runner-up Butler both posted high scores of 83 percent.
Stanford’s basketball program had a relatively high score of 80 percent over the 2000-2003 seasons.
The NCAA also released data on Stanford’s remaining athletic programs. Collectively, Stanford had a graduation rate of 94 percent among its student-athletes, while the student body at-large has a similar rate of 95 percent.
The men’s basketball GSR of 80 percent was the lowest of any Stanford team. Nineteen programs, including women’s basketball, baseball and softball, posted perfect GSRs of 100 percent.
Since the NCAA began publishing GSR data, starting with the 1998 cohort, Stanford has never scored below 93 percent as an institution. The 2003 cohort’s score of 94 percent represents no change from the previous year’s score and a decline of one percent from the 2001 cohort.