Official NCAA Report Data


INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA has released the latest Division II graduation rate data, including the division’s Academic Success Rate (ASR), which held good news for the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
 
The national four-year ASR average increased slightly to 74%, and the entering class of 2013 increased 2 points to 77%, an all-time high for single-year rates. This is the 15th year the NCAA has released the ASR.
 
The Great Midwest tied for seventh with three other leagues among all 23 Division II conferences with an ASR of 79%, exceeding the national averages once again.  
 
The NCAA developed the Division II ASR at the request of college and university presidents who believed the federal graduation rate was flawed. Division II’s ASR data takes transfer students into account and removes students who left the institution in good academic standing.
 
In addition, given the partial-scholarship financial aid model of Division II, the ASR data includes student-athletes not on athletically related financial aid. The result is that ASR captures approximately 32,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who enrolled from 2010 through 2013, the four years covered in the most recent data.
 
Even when utilizing the less-inclusive federal rate, Division II student-athletes perform significantly better than the general student body. The federal rate for Division II student-athletes in the 2013 entering class increased by 1 point to 62% — another all-time high —while the general student body increased 1 point to 53%, a difference of 9 points.
 
At the NCAA Convention in January 2014, the Division II membership approved a legislative package intended to increase student-athlete success and graduation rates. The package addresses a variety of academic standards, and includes adjustments to eligibility standards, progress-toward-degree requirements and standards for transfers from two-year colleges.
 
This is the third academic year in which all of these requirements are in effect.