NCAA: Utah State's Graduation Success Rating is above average

Logan • Utah State's Graduation Success Rate, the metric used to identify how many student-athletes graduate, stands at 89 percent, the NCAA national office has announced.

The national average is 83 percent. The new rate is a four-year average encompassing students who began school between 2006-09.

Among Utah State's 16 NCAA-sponsored sports, men's and women's tennis have a GSR of 100 percent. Men's tennis has achieved that metric for nine straight years.

Others sports with outstanding GSRs include women's cross country and track (98%), soccer (95%), softball (95%), gymnastics (89%), men's cross country and track (88%), women's basketball (86%) and golf (83%).

The women's cross country/track and softball programs ranked first in the Mountain West Conference. The men's and women's tennis program and the men's cross country-track program tied for first in the conference.

The Utah State football team has a GSR of 87 percent — tops in the Mountain West Conference. It is first among the other football programs in the state, ahead of Utah (69%), BYU (56%), Southern Utah (52%) and Weber State (48%).

"We're very proud of our student-athletes in persisting to graduation," said USU senior associate athletic director for student services Dr. Brian Evans. "Earning their degree is the ultimate goal, and doing so at a rate of 89 percent is something we can all be proud of."

Among the six Division I schools in the state, Utah State ranks ahead of Utah (83%), BYU (75%), Utah Valley (71%), Weber State (69%) and Southern Utah (69%).

The graduation success rate is based on a comparison of the number of student-athletes who enrolled and the number of those who graduated within six years of initial enrollment. The GSR subtracts student-athletes who depart for allowable exclusions, such as church missions and those who transfer but would have been eligible to compete had they returned to their original school.

— Steve Luhm