Utah State Student-Athletes Lead Mountain West With 93 Percent Graduation Success Rate

Utah State's Graduation Success Rate (GSR) stands at 93 percent for its student-athletes, it was announced by the NCAA national office Tuesday. This mark leads the Mountain West, while the national average is 90 percent.

"Our belief is that the greatest victory each of our student-athletes can experience is walking across the stage to get their diploma," said USU Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hartwell. "These numbers validate our commitment to academics and preparing our student-athletes for life after college and we applaud their efforts to achieve academic excellence. We also appreciate the emphasis that our coaches and dedicated student-athlete services staff facilitate with the academic success of our student-athletes."

Utah State had the best or tied for the best GSR in the Mountain West in six sports with football (91), golf (100), men's tennis (100), soccer (100), women's tennis (100) and women's cross country/track & field (97). USU's men's tennis program has now had a perfect GSR for 13 consecutive years, while USU's golf and soccer programs have now hit that mark in each of the last four years.

Continuing Utah State's scores, softball posted a 95, matching its highest GSR since the 2009 cohort. Additionally, gymnastics (94), women's basketball (910), men's basketball (89), volleyball (89) and men's cross country/track & field (82) also excelled within the framework.

This year's GSR is a four-year average encompassing the 2010-13 classes. The following Aggie teams are above the national average for their sport – men's cross country/track & field, women's cross country/track & field, football, men's golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, men's tennis and women's tennis.

The graduation success rate is based on a comparison of the number of student-athletes who entered college and the number of those who graduated within six years of initial enrollment. The GSR subtracts student-athletes who depart for allowable exclusions (e.g. official church mission), as well as those who transfer but would have been academically eligible to compete had they returned to the institution.