Graduation rate for LSU Athletics at all-time high

BATON ROUGE – The success of LSU student-athletes in the classroom remained near historic levels as the university scored an 89 in the most recent Graduation Success Rate released by the NCAA.

Falling just one point shy of equaling LSU’s record mark of 90 set last year, 89 percent represents a staggering increase for LSU student-athletes since vice chancellor and director of athletics Joe Alleva became athletic director in 2008.

LSU’s GSR score when Alleva arrived on campus stood at 69 percent. LSU student-athletes have seen their GSR score improve substantially since Alleva’s arrival, in fact the school has seen an increase in its score eight times in 10 years going back to 2008.

“The credit goes to the student-athletes for this incredible achievement,” said Alleva. “They have really bought in to what we are doing. They put in the extraordinary effort and the time. This has become not just a priority for us as a department but for our student-athletes and the results are clear to see.”

LSU’s overall score of 89 tied with Alabama and Mississippi State as the fourth-highest total among all Southeastern Conference institutions.

Six sports led LSU with perfect score of 100 – men’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, softball, women’s golf, women’s tennis and volleyball.

In addition to LSU’s six perfect scores, the school produced scores of 90 or better in five other sports – women’s soccer (95), women’s swimming and diving (95), women’s basketball (94), gymnastics (92) and baseball (90).

The LSU men’s basketball team recorded an all-time high GSR score of 89, which bettered the previous mark of 82 set a year ago. LSU’s nationally-ranked football team scored a 73, which is significantly higher than the national average of 41 percent.

Rounding out the men’s scores include an 88 for the Tiger golf team and an 80 for the track and field squad. The women’s track and field team scored an 88.

“The collective efforts of all contributed to the 2018 graduation success rate of 89 percent,” LSU Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Executive Director of the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes Kenneth Miles said. “It is a testament to commitment, passion, and triumph. We, in the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes, are very proud of our scholar-athletes as they continue to grow, develop, lead meaningful lives, and paying it forward.”

These scores again provide proof that LSU is putting its student-athletes on the right track for success after their college careers have been completed.

“The vast majority of student-athletes will not compete professionally in sports,” Alleva said. “Our job is to prepare them as best we can for the next step. A degree and the knowledge and skills associated with earning that degree are invaluable.

“I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments of our student-athletes in the classroom.”

The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The rate 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 calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.

The NCAA began compiling these figures with the entering freshmen class of 1995.