ACC teams lead the nation in graduation success rate

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s presence in the forefront of academic success was demonstrated once again in the latest NCAA Graduation Success Rates (GSR) released today.

Teams from ACC institutions rank among the top Division I institutions with an average graduation rate of 87 percent, while the NCAA graduation rate is 80 percent nationally.

ACC notes include:

· The ACC leads all BCS AQ conferences in average score for football, men’s basketball and baseball

· In the sport of football, the ACC is the only BCS AQ conference to have multiple teams score 90 or higher every year since 2005

· In the sport of men’s basketball, the ACC is the only BCS AQ conference to have four teams score 90 or higher in 2012

· The ACC leads all BCS AQ conferences in the number of teams above the average score in baseball, with two teams scoring 100

· 2012 marks the sixth-straight year that the ACC has had at least four women’s basketball programs score 100, making it the only BCS AQ conference to do so

The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative as a better measure of student-athlete academic success.  The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.

Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing.  The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.

By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by 38 percent.

The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2002-2003 through 2005-06. More than 110,000 student-athletes are included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology, as compared to about 79,500 in the federal rate.

This year marks the 11th year that GSR data have been collected. The NCAA began collecting this data with the entering freshmen class of 1995.