DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's basketball program achieved its highest Graduation Success Rate in school history to lead another stellar effort by all Huskie student-athletes in the GSR report released Wednesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The GSR has been used by the NCAA as an academic assessment tool for the last 16 years and is seen as the most accurate measure of a school's ability to graduate student-athletes. This year's report gives graduation information about the most recent six-year graduating class of student-athletes who entered as freshmen in 2010-11.
NIU posted an overall GSR of 86 percent in the 2016-17 cohort to continue its recent string of GSR excellence. The Huskies have recorded the four highest GSR marks in school history in the past four years.
"Congratulations to our student-athletes who, with the support of our coaches and staff, continue to achieve at the highest levels both in the classroom and in competition," said NIU Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics
Sean T. Frazier. "The latest GSR Report is continued proof that NIU's athletics program is getting it done the right way. I'm extremely proud of all of our graduates and especially happy to see the impressive numbers put up by our football and men's basketball teams."
After winning the Mid-American Conference's prestigious Jacoby Trophy for the first time for their prowess on the fields of play in 2016-17, NIU's female student-athletes proved they were up to the challenge in the classroom too with a combined GSR of 95 percent. Four Huskie women's programs - golf, gymnastics, soccer and volleyball – recorded perfect graduation success rates of 100 percent while softball (93 percent), women's basketball (91) and cross country & track and field (90) all hit 90 percent or better. Seven of NIU's eight women's programs (indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country are combined) had a GSR above the national average for their sports.
On the men's side, men's basketball saw the greatest improvement from a year ago with a school-record 88 percent GSR in the 2017 report to rank third among Mid-American Conference teams. Their GSR is 10 points above the national average for Division I men's basketball programs and 13 points above their 2016 rate.
The Huskie football program, meanwhile, continues to rank among the MAC and FBS best with a GSR of 84 percent this year. That was good for second in the MAC, one percentage point behind Miami (Ohio). NIU also remains one of the FBS' top football programs in terms of graduating its student-athletes as their 84 percent mark tied for 20
th among all NCAA Division I FBS schools.
"As we continue Huskies Invest: A Week of Giving, I hope this GSR report provides our donors and alumni with yet another reason to support our student-athletes and to take pride in this athletic program," Frazier said.
Unlike the federal graduation rate, the GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students and accounts for mid-year enrollees. Universities are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing, while incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees are included in the calculation.
The complete Graduation Success Rate report for all Division I schools, including a searchable historical database and the Federal Graduation Rate data, is available online at
NCAA.org.
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