Football Among Record Eight USF Programs To Match Or Exceed Record GSR Scores

TAMPA, NOV. 4, 2015 – For the second straight year, University of South Florida Athletics has posted a program record in the classroom recording an 83 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) when NCAA announced GSR numbers for all Division I institutions Wednesday. USF's record-tying overall score was boosted by a record nine programs, including football, that matched or exceeded program record GSR scores.

USF matched its department record 83 percent GSR posted last year. The 2015 numbers represent scholarship student-athletes over a six-year period starting with freshmen that entered college in 2008. The record-equaling GSR comes on the heels of nine programs posting record performances in Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores announced in May.

“We are committed to the total student-athlete experience and our student-athletes have embraced that commitment by continuing to succeed at a high level in the classroom,” USF Director of Athletics Mark Harlan said. “This is a team effort. I am very proud of our coaches and Academic Services staff that work so hard and are committed to or student-athletes reaching their goals and dreams both within athletic competition and beyond it.”

USF has seen its overall program GSR rise substantially over the last six years and now well exceed the national average of 75 percent for Football Bowl Subdivision schools. USF's Graduation Success Rates for African-American student-athletes of 75 percent and Hispanic student-athletes of 89 percent were both well above the national averages.

The football program improved its GSR score for the third-straight year under Head Coach Willie Taggart, logging a program-record 74 percent Graduation Success Rate. The men's soccer program posted a program record 95 percent GSR to lead all American Athletic Conference soccer teams, as Head Coach George Kiefer's program improved its GSR for the third-straight year and by nearly 70 points in the last 10 years. Also among the four men's programs logging record scores were men's tennis (80%), which is coming off back-to-back conference championships and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16 under Head Coach Matt Hill, and men's track and field and cross country (83%).

Three USF women's programs posted perfect GSR scores of 100 led by Jose Fernandez's women's basketball program, coming off its second NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three seasons, and Ken Eriksen's softball program. Both posted a perfect score for the fourth straight year.  Women's tennis also posted a 100 percent GSR mark for the second straight year and women's volleyball increased its GSR for the third straight year to post a program record 92 percent mark. All of USF's eight women's programs posted an 89 or higher GSR score while averaging a 94 percent score across the board.

“Graduating our student-athletes is our number one goal,” said Tim Anderson, associate director of athletics for academics. “With the tremendous backing from Mark Harlan and our coaches and administration, we feel great about our ability to consistently provide our student-athletes with top-notch support services and resources, which aid them on their path toward this goal. We have a great Academic Services staff that works incredibly hard at supporting our student-athletes and coaches in navigating the balance between achieving their academic goals and their athletic pursuits.”

USF graduated 105 student-athletes in 2014-15 and posted an overall department grade-point average of 2.97 among nearly 500 student-athletes. USF has posted better than a 2.90 overall GPA for 15-consecutive semesters and has student-athletes enrolled in more than 20 different majors ranging from psychology, political science and education to finance, management, and biomedical sciences.

The Bulls had 182 student-athletes earn Academic All-conference honors during the 2014-15 season, bringing USF's two-year total to 366, including back-to-back record numbers of 23 football players in each of the last two seasons.

Two USF teams, men's tennis and women's indoor track and field, earned American Athletic Conference Academic Excellence Awards for the highest team GPA in the conference. The men's tennis team earned the USF's President's Cup for the highest team GPA (3.44) as well as the Provost's Cup for the most improved team GPA (+.240) among USF Athletics teams.

USF continued to excel in the most recently completed semester as the Bulls posted an overall program GPA of 3.03 and saw 41 student-athletes earn a perfect 4.0. USF had 11 of 19 teams post a team GPA of 3.0 or higher and 278 student-athletes (58%) eclipse that mark.

The Graduation Success Rate data is based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to show the proportion of student-athletes on any given team who earn a college degree.

The most recent data is based on percentage of student-athletes who entered college in 2007 who earned a degree. The NCAA developed the Division I Graduation Success Rate in response to college and university presidents who wanted graduation data that more accurately reflect the mobility among all college students today. Both the Graduation Success Rate and the Academic Progress Rate account for the academic outcomes of student-athletes who transfer from one institution to another.

The GSR is the NCAA's more inclusive calculation of academic success among scholarship student-athletes. The NCAA rate is more accurate than the federally mandated methodology because it includes incoming transfers and students enrolling in the spring semester who receive athletic aid and graduate, and deletes from the calculation student-athletes who leave an institution and were academically eligible to compete. The federal rate does neither.

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