UA’s overall GSR score down a point
FAYETTEVILLE — Seventy-nine percent of the athletes that enrolled at the University of Arkansas between 2008-11 graduated within six years, according to numbers released Wednesday by the NCAA.
The 79 percent score was Arkansas’ second highest in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate (GSR), a percentage point lower than a year ago when the Razorbacks scored an 80.
GSR is a calculation of how many athletes graduate within six academic years of college enrollment. According to NCAA figures, 91 percent of Arkansas’ female athletes graduated during the latest reporting period, while 68 percent of male athletes graduated.
According to UA figures, 61.5 percent of all students graduated in the latest sixyear snapshot.
The Razorbacks’ latest overall score is substantially higher than the 60 percent received in the NCAA’s first GSR report in 2005 but still well behind other SEC programs.
Arkansas’ 79 overall grade is four points behind Texas A&M for last in the 14-member SEC. Vanderbilt, the conference’s only private university, had the highest overall GSR score of 97, followed by South Carolina (94) and Missouri (91).
“We must continue to educate our student-athletes on the importance of academics success and the value of earning a degree from the University of Arkansas,” said Hunter Yurachek, the Razorbacks’ first-year athletics director.
Yurachek noted that 90 percent of athletes that finished their eligibility the last academic year had graduated, but those athletes’ graduations won’t be reflected in the GSR score for at least two, and in most cases three more years.
The Razorbacks scored last in the SEC in the two most high-profile sports, football (56) and men’s basketball (50). The football score is down four points from a year ago and the basketball score is down 25 points. Both sports recorded their highest GSR scores in the 2017 report.
The latest figures reflect the graduation percentages for football athletes recruited by former head coach Bobby Petrino, and who were seniors between 2011-14.
The basketball figures are for the final three freshman classes for former coach John Pelphrey and the first freshman class for current coach Mike Anderson — athletes who were seniors between the 2011-12 and 2014-15 seasons.
Arkansas baseball had a score of 75, which was 10 points higher than a year ago, and 12th among SEC schools. The figure reflects the rate for newcomers on the Razorbacks’ 2009-12 teams.
The GSR does not penalize programs for transfers or early departures, as long as the athletes leave the university in good academic standing.
Six Arkansas programs — gymnastics, soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s golf and volleyball — had 100 percent graduation rates in the latest reporting cycle.
Other notable scores include 77 for women’s basketball, 83 for women’s cross country/track and field and 78 for men’s cross country/ track and field.
The women’s basketball score remained the same as last year, while the women’s track score rose by two points and the men’s track score dropped by a point.
GSR is one of two annual report cards issued by the NCAA to track academic trends in college athletics. The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is released each spring and focuses on athletes’ eligibility and retention during four-year and single-year periods.