RU Athletes Shine in Classroom: NCAA sometimes does care about classwork

The latest NCAA report on graduation success puts the Scarlet Knights in a good light.  Five Rutgers Athletics teams posted perfect scores of 100 and 16 out of 20 teams earned marks at or above 80 percent in the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) report, released by the NCAA for all Division I institutions.

Rutgers men's basketball, men's golf, gymnastics, tennis and women's soccer all achieved a perfect GSR of 100. Men's basketball's perfect score is tied for the best nationally for the second consecutive year, and is among former American Athletic and current Big Ten Conference members. Football had a GSR of 83, which is second among former AAC members and third among current Big Ten Conference members.

"The high marks in the GSR Report shows the commitment of our students, our coaches and our administration to achieve the ultimate goal in college athletics - graduation," said Scott Walker, Rutgers' executive director of academic support services for student-athletes.

Among football bowl subdivision universities, four of eight Rutgers men's teams were above the FBS average, while five of 12 women's programs were above the FBS average. Swimming and diving (90) was two points shy of the FBS average, while softball (88) and volleyball (90) were each one point shy.

Other programs to earn high marks in the most recent GSR are women's lacrosse (97), men's and women's cross country (89 and 92, respectively), men's lacrosse (86), field hockey (85), women's basketball (82) and women's golf (80).

On an individual basis, junior back Maggie Morash of the Rutgers women's soccer team was placed on the Capital One Academic All-District Team, announced Thursday by CoSIDA.  A genetics major, Morash was selected to the District 2 squad and will now be added to the Academic All-America ballot. The voting period for the national ballot begins on Tuesday, Nov. 4.  Morash has logged 941 minutes of action and has started 15 of 16 matches for the Scarlet Knights this season. An integral part of the RU backline, Morash has helped RU emerge as one of the best defenses in the nation.  The squad is in the top 25 in the country in numerous defensive categories, including 11th in GAA (0.55), 18th in save percentage (.857) and 22nd in shutout percentage (.500).

For comparison, Rutgers is in the middle of the pack among Big Ten schools.  A sample of other schools - some from the "old neighborhood" - are also included.  These are the overall scores for the school.

The Graduation Success Rate is a four-year measure of freshmen and transfer student-athletes at each university from 2004-2007. It begins with the federal cohort, and adds transfer students, mid-year enrollees, and non-scholarship students (in specified cases) to the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution.

This rate provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes.