WKU Athletics Shine in Latest NCAA Graduation Report

Western Kentucky University had six sports post a graduation success rate of 100% while the university’s 15 sports programs combined to post an overall rate of 80% in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate Report released Tuesday.  The 80% overall rate was the second-highest in the 12-member Sun Belt Conference, trailing only the University of Denver.

WKU’s six sports that posted a perfect 100% graduation success rate were men’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s swimming, women’s soccer, and volleyball.  Additionally, WKU had a graduation success rate of 70% or greater in 10 of the university’s 15 sports programs measured by the NCAA.

The Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering freshmen classes in Division I from 2001-02 through 2004-05.  The NCAA calculates the rates based upon the number of athletes who graduate in addition to those who left WKU prior to graduating but would have been academically eligible to compete.  The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately measure the success of Division I student-athletes by better accounting for the many different academic paths followed by today’s college students.

In addition to the Graduation Success Rate for the 2001-02 through 2004-05 classes, WKU’s federal graduation rate of 60% for student-athletes trailed only Denver and North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference and also exceeded the 49% federal graduation rate posted by all WKU students. 

The graduation rate is the percent of baccalaureate degree-seeking students who entered school during the four measured school years and graduated within six years after initially enrolling.  These are the most recent graduating classes for which the required six years of information is available.

WKU has also had more individuals honored for their academic achievements by the Sun Belt Conference than any other league institution in each of the last six years.  Other WKU academic highlights include:

Since the year 2000, 85% of WKU student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility have graduated.

For all 378 WKU student-athletes, the overall cumulative average GPA is 3.04 and 199 student-athletes (53%) are maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Ten of the university’s 15 athletic programs have a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or better.

In the second semester of the 2010-11 year, 213 student-athletes (56%) had a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

A total of 71 student-athletes have graduated in the last calendar year, as 49 graduated in May and 22 graduated in December of 2010.  Every sport is represented among the 71 graduates.

WKU student-athletes in the university’s 19 sports are majoring in 76 different programs.   The Gordon Ford College of Business has 58 student-athletes, the most of any division.

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