The most recent data released by the NCAA show the athletes on women’s basketball and men’s tennis teams graduate at the highest rates, while football players graduate at the lowest rate at the University.
A Graduation Success Rate, which measures over a six-year period, is a number unique to the NCAA: It is a more accurate indicator of how student-athletes are performing academically than the Department of Education’s federal graduation rate, which does not consider factors such as student transfers or deaths. The GSRs are consistently higher than the federal rates.

“(The GSR) is actually looking at what happened to these kids,” said Jennie Leander, associate director of Services for Student-Athletes. “I think the GSR captures more the student-athlete experience than the federal rate.” Leander also noted the GSR is only a snapshot in time; it is not an overall indicator of how any Oregon athletes are performing academically.
Both the GSR and federal rate can also be misleading because on small teams, one or two students can make a huge difference.
“With basketball and golf, the squad sizes are so small that one student-athlete that’s not performing academically can really influence the rate negatively,” said Bill Clever, assistant athletic director of compliance.
The numbers released this week represent the 1997-2000 time frame and show the percentage of student-athlete graduates who enrolled during the four-year period.
The men’s basketball team had a GSR of 59 percent – third in the Pacific-10 Conference.
“For where they’re going down the road, that’s the most important thing,” said head coach Ernie Kent. “They need to have good experiences basketball-wise, but (it’s) most important to get their educations here.”
Indeed, men’s basketball is one of the more academically successful teams: The NCAA ranked it in the 80th to 90th percentile among Division I schools for its 2005-2006 Academic Progress Rate report. The APR is a more current indicator of academic success, and can be used to revoke scholarships from universities if athletes do not perform well enough.
“The student-athletes that are currently on the squad are doing phenomenally well,” Clever said. “It’s nice to see some of the numbers reflect what Coach Kent and the staff have done.”
Meanwhile, on the field, men’s football had a GSR of 55 percent, down four points from last year’s figure. The Oregon State University football team’s GSR was seven points higher, but Clever said the athletic department closely tracks these numbers, and expects them to improve next year. Still, he said a few points’ difference in either direction isn’t significant in the scheme of things.
Every team, male or female, achieved a graduation success rate above fifty percent. Women’s basketball and men’s tennis both came in at 100 percent. Women had the next four highest GSRs with volleyball, softball, tennis and golf. Men’s golf, wrestling and women’s soccer all had 75 percent GSRs.
While the combined GSRs of all men’s teams and all women’s teams will not be released until later this year, in individual sports women show consistently higher GSRs than men. Athletic department officials attributed the difference to fewer professional opportunities for female athletes.
“Women don’t oftentimes have the professional aspirations in their sports that sometimes cause the attention to wander of some of our other student-athletes,” said Clever. “The young ladies are typically here to get their degree.”
Leander agreed.
“For a long time there wasn’t professional sports for women, so (for) many of the females, coming to college is just a means to get an education,” she said. “Men are more thinking about professional athletics … For women the mentality has always been, college is kind of the end of the line.”
Leander said while it is sometimes difficult to devote time to both academics and athletics, most students know they’re here first and foremost to get an education.
“By and large, all of them are here with that goal in mind,” she said. “Playing a sport takes a physical and mental and sometimes emotional toll on you that you need to balance.”
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