University of Nebraska student-athletes continue to be among the nation’s best in the classroom. The NCAA has released its Graduation Success Rate (GSR), with Nebraska posting its highest overall GSR in the 13-year history of the rate.
Nebraska posted an all student-athlete GSR of 89 percent, an improvement of 1 percent from a year ago. In the past four years alone, Nebraska has improved its all student-athlete GSR by 9 percent.
In addition to the highest all student-athlete GSR in Nebraska history, six Husker teams achieved a perfect 100 percent GSR. Those teams included women’s basketball, women’s gymnastics, softball, women’s tennis, volleyball and men’s tennis. The women’s basketball, women’s tennis and volleyball programs have achieved a perfect GSR each of the 13 years the rate has been computed by the NCAA.
Ten other Husker programs achieved a GSR of 85 percent or higher, including baseball, men’s cross country/track, football, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, rifle, women’s cross country/track, women’s golf, soccer and women’s swimming and diving.
The football program’s GSR of 85 percent ranked second in the Big Ten, trailing only Northwestern. Football’s GSR is 9 percentage points above the national average for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs.
Also in the football GSR, Nebraska ranked in a tie for 11th among the 65 Power Five schools in the FBS ranks. Nebraska joined Northwestern, South Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame, Stanford, Wake Forest, Boston College, Vanderbilt, Miami, Virginia Tech, Clemson and Missouri among the top 11 in football GSR. Among public schools, Nebraska’s football program had the third-best GSR among Power Five Schools.
The 2017 football team has three players competing as graduates this season. Another 13 members of the senior class are on track to earn their degrees at the completion of UNL’s fall semester.
The GSR is an NCAA measurement that, unlike the federally mandated graduation rates, includes transfer data in the calculation. The GSR data released this week is based on four classes of scholarship student-athletes who entered college in the fall of 2007 to the fall of 2010.
The GSR allows for a six-year window in which the student-athlete can earn his or her degree. Although the GSR includes student-athletes who transferred to Nebraska, it does not count student-athletes who transferred to another school and were academically eligible at the time of their transfer.
