The NCAA released its graduation rates report Tuesday and the news was good for Towson. In this latest report, which focused on the cohort of college freshmen that enrolled in the fall of 2000, 73 percent of the Towson student-athletes graduated in the six-year window, which was10 percent higher than the national Division I average. The graduation rate of the Tiger student-athletes was also nine percent higher than the Towson student body, which graduated at a 64% rate.
?This latest report is another confirmation that our university, faculty, coaches, staff and student-athletes are dedicated to academic success, as well as athletics success,? said director of athletics, Mike Hermann. ?I give credit to the coaches, not only for recruiting student-athletes that could be successful at Towson, but also for setting the culture that encourages academic success. I also give credit to the 57 student-athletes in this cohort that earned their degrees. It?s a great message for us to share with the Towson community.?
The academic success of the fall 2000 cohort ranked Towson third in the 12-team Colonial Athletic Association, behind Delaware (84 percent) and William & Mary (83 percent).
The report singles out five sports that Towson sponsors. In three of those sports, Towson is well above the national average, including baseball (83 percent at Towson; 45 percent nationally); football (81 percent at Towson; 55 percent nationally) and women?s cross country/track (100 percent at Towson; 68 percent nationally). Men?s and women?s basketball were below the national average (men?s basketball at 25 percent; women?s basketball at 20 percent).
?The numbers for basketball are a reflection of the transition in our programs over that period of time,? Hermann explained. ?We had three different men?s basketball coaches over that five-year period. We also had a women?s basketball coaching change. We had several players leave the institution in good academic standing, but this measures a transfer as a non-graduate. The NCAA?s new Graduation Success Rate, which takes into account transfers in and out of the program, give a more accurate measure. According to the most recent GSR, our men?s basketball program graduated 86 percent of the student-athletes, while the women?s basketball program graduated 100 percent.?
The GSR, which was released a few weeks ago, indicated that the overall Towson athletics program graduated 87% of its student-athletes, 10 percent higher than the national average.
The federal report also indicated that Towson graduated 91 percent of the student-athletes that exhausted their eligibility at the university, which is five percent higher than the national average.
