NCAA Release

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Nine University of Illinois athletics programs earned perfect Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores, as part of Wednesday's GSR and Federal Graduation Rate (FGS) reports released by the NCAA. The Fighting Illini earned an overall GSR of 92, a new University of Illinois record during the 15-year history of the report.

"It's an outstanding accomplishment to break our historical GSR record and it affirms the commitment our student-athletes have made to receiving a world-class education at Illinois," said Director of Athletics Josh Whitman. "It's a testament to the high standards our coaches and administrators set and to the hard work put in daily by our Fighting Illini student-athletes. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments in the classroom."

The data is based on the 2009-2012 cohort, ending with freshmen that began at the University of Illinois in 2012-13. Data is calculated after student-athletes are given six years to graduate following their first-time enrollment at a given university.

The nine Illini programs that posted perfect GSR scores of 100 were baseball, men's golf, women's basketball, women's golf, women's gymnastics, softball, swimming and diving, women's tennis, and volleyball. Another four programs were 90 or higher - soccer (94), men's basketball (90), men's tennis (90), and women's cross country/track and field (90).

GSR HIGHLIGHTS

» 14 of 17 Illini programs scored at or above the Division I average GSR for their respective sport.
» Women's gymnastics has posted a GSR of 100 in all 15 years since the report began in 1998.
» Men's golf posted its eighth straight GSR of 100 and eighth since the report began in 1998.
» Women's basketball posted its sixth straight GSR of 100 and seventh since the report began in 1998.
» Women's tennis posted its fifth straight GSR of 100 and seventh since the report began in 1998.
» Baseball posted its fourth straight GSR of 100 and fourth since the report began in 1998. Illinois is one of only 30 perfect GSRs in Division I baseball and one of only eight Power 5 baseball programs to earn a 100 (Clemson, NC State, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Stanford, Virginia, Wake Forest).
» Women's swimming and diving posted its fourth straight GSR of 100 and 11th since the report began in 1998. The program has had a GSR over 96 every year since the report began.
» Softball posted its ninth GSR of 100 since the report began in 1998 and its third in a row. Illinois is one of six Big Ten softball programs to earn a 100.
» Women's golf posted its first GSR of 100 in five years and 11th since the report began in 1998.
» Volleyball posted its first GSR of 100 in five years and fourth since the report began in 1998.
» Football (87) scored its highest in the 15-year history of the report and scored above the national average of 78. 
» Men's basketball (90) scored its highest in six years (2006 cohort) and scored above the national average of 83. 
» Men's cross country/track and field (88) scored above the national average of 82. 
» Soccer (94) scored at the national average of 94. 
» Wrestling (79) scored at the national average of 79. 
» Women's cross country/track has posted a GSR at or above 90 in all 15 years since the report began in 1998. 
» Men's tennis (90) scored its highest in nine years (2003 cohort).
 

FGR vs. GSR

GSR begins with the federal cohort, and adds transfer students, midyear enrollees, and non-scholarship students (in specified cases) to the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution. This rate provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes. 

FGR assesses only first-time full-time freshmen in a given cohort and only counts them as academic successes if they graduate from their institution of initial enrollment within a six-year period. It makes no accommodation for transfers into or out of an institution. The rate is very limited because it ignores the large number of transfer students in higher education, but it is still the only rate that allows a direct comparison between student-athletes and the general student-body.