UA teams make gains in graduation

FAYETTEVILLE — Eighty-four percent of the athletes who enrolled at the University of Arkansas between 2009-12 graduated within six years, according to an adjusted rate released Thursday by the NCAA.

The score of 84 was Arkansas’ highest in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate, five points higher than a year ago and four points higher than the previous high mark recorded two years ago.

GSR is a calculation of how many athletes graduate within six academic years of college enrollment and often looks much different than federal graduation rates because of differences in how the two rates are calculated.

Unlike the federal rate, the GSR score does not penalize a university for athletes who do not graduate from there because of a transfer or to pursue a professional career, as long as the athletes leave the university in good academic standing. Also, unlike the federal rate, GSR takes into consideration whether or not an athlete graduated after transferring.

The UA’s six-year federal graduation rate was 58% for athletes and

66% for all students in the latest reporting period.

The federal rate reports a 69% graduation rate for women and 61% rate for men at the UA, while the GSR reports a 92% rate for female athletes and 75% rate for male athletes at the college.

The Razorbacks’ latest overall GSR score is 24 points higher than its 60 score in the first GSR report in 2005.

Arkansas’ five-point jump in the latest study was tied with Auburn for the most improvement of any university in the SEC.

Vanderbilt, the conference’s only private university, had the highest overall GSR score of 97, followed by South Carolina (94), Alabama (91) and Missouri (91).

“We have continued to make measurable progress in fostering the success of our student-athletes on the path to graduation,” UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement.

“However, we still have work to do to ensure every student-athlete who exhausts his or her athletic eligibility, is also an addition to Senior Walk as a University of Arkansas graduate.”

After ranking last in the GSR among the SEC’s two most high-profile sports, football and men’s basketball, Arkansas showed the league’s most improvement in football with an 11-point increase to a GSR score of 67, and second-most improvement in basketball with a 12-point increase to 62.

The football score was the highest in the program’s history and ranked 13th in the SEC, ahead of Georgia. The men’s basketball score was 12th among SEC programs, ahead of Missouri and Ole Miss.

Arkansas baseball had a score of 86, which was 11 points higher than a year ago and 21 points higher than two years ago, and tied for sixth among SEC programs.

Five Arkansas programs — gymnastics, soccer, men’s tennis, women’s golf and volleyball — had perfect GSR scores of 100.

Other notable scores at Arkansas include 70 for women’s basketball, 82 for women’s cross country/ track and field and 81 for men’s cross country/track and field. The women’s basketball score fell seven points from a year ago, while women’s track fell by one point and the men’s track score improved by three points.

GSR is one of two annual report cards issued by the NCAA to track academic trends in college athletics. The Academic Progress Rate is released each spring and focuses on athletes’ eligibility and retention during four-year and single-year periods.