SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The NCAA has released the 2009 Graduation Success Rate for all Division I institutions. Wofford had ten of 13 teams post a score of 100, the highest score available.

Wofford teams that had a score of 100 included women’s cross country/track, women’s golf, men’s golf, men’s cross country/track, men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and volleyball.

Among Southern Conference institutions, Davidson had eleven teams score a 100, followed by Wofford with ten, Furman with eight and Appalachian State with seven. Wofford’s football team posted a score of 95, second in the conference behind Furman. Wofford’s men’s basketball team was joined by Davidson and The Citadel with scores of 100.

Nationally, the most recent GSR data show that 79 percent of freshmen student-athletes who entered college in 2002 earned their four-year degrees. The average Graduation Success Rate for the last four graduating classes is 78 percent. At Wofford, all 13 teams were above the national average of 79 percent.

The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.

Under the GSR calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. These outgoing transfers are essentially passed to the receiving institution’s GSR cohort. By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by more than 37 percent.

The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, because it is the only rate by which to compare student-athletes to the general student body. The most recent Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering freshmen classes in Division I from 1999-2000 through 2002-03.

There are almost 100,000 student-athletes included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology, as compared to just over 72,000 counted in the federal rate. This year marks the seventh year that GSR data have been collected. The NCAA began collecting GSR data with the entering freshman class of 1995. The latest entering class for which data are available is 2002.

For complete statistics on GSR and Federal Graduation Rates, please visit www.ncaa.org.