GREENSBORO, N.C. – Five UNC Greensboro (UNCG) athletic programs posted a perfect score of 100 in the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for all Division I institutions released last Wednesday.  
 

The overall GSR for UNCG student-athletes was 94 percent. It is the fourth-consecutive year UNCG's score has met or exceeded the NCAA's 90-percent benchmark. This matches the Spartan's highest GSR, where UNCG also earned a 94-percent during the release in December of 2021.  
 

"I am very proud of the academic success of our student-athletes and the continued commitment to excellence," stated Director of Athletics Brian Mackin. "We strive to maintain not only a high grade-point average as a department, but we also are continually focused on the graduation of all our student-athletes. These student-athletes know that at the end of their career at UNCG, no matter the wins or losses, they walk away with a diploma they can be proud to have earned." 
 

Figures released Wednesday by the NCAA reflect graduation numbers among student-athletes who entered college in 2016. The NCAA has tracked GSR for more than two decades, and student-athletes have surpassed the original benchmark goal of 80-percent, with long-term graduation rate increases being observed year after year from an overall 74-percent in 2002 to this year's record 91-percent.   
 

The Spartan athletic programs that reached scores of 100 included men's basketball, men's tennis, softball, women's tennis, and volleyball.    
 

Among The Southern Conference (SoCon), 37 women's programs and 27 men's programs achieved perfect scores of 100 for the 2013-16 cohorts. Eight SoCon men's basketball teams exceeded the FCS average of 85, with Furman, UNCG, Samford and Western Carolina posting perfect scores. Furman, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford turned in perfect women's tennis scores, as did The Citadel, ETSU, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford for volleyball. 
   
A metric developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative, the GSR is used to assess the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR also allows schools to subtract student-athletes who leave their institutions before graduation as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.    
 

ABOUT THE GSR 
The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately measure the success of Division I student-athletes. 

The GSR takes into account the many different academic paths followed by today's college students. 
 

Unlike the federal graduation rate, the GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport. 
 

By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by approximately 37 percent. 
 

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. 

The NCAA also calculates the federal graduation rate for student-athletes, because it is the only rate to compare student-athletes to the general student body. 
 

This year marks the 22nd year of GSR data that has been collected. The NCAA began collecting GSR data with the entering freshman class of 1995. The latest entering class for which data is available is 2016. 
   
For complete statistics on GSR and Federal Graduation Rates, please visit www.ncaa.org.