By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech student-athletes posted impressive scores in the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) reports, released Wednesday afternoon by the NCAA. Tech has not only maintained a high level of success in the school's graduation rates overall, the student-athlete graduation rates continue to rank higher than those for the general TTU student body.
The current report gives graduation information about students and student-athletes entering in 2012. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available.
"We take great pride that at Tennessee Tech, our student-athletes and coaches continue to make academic success a top priority," said Director of Athletics Mark Wilson. "They understand the important role that athletics plays in serving the University and the surrounding community, and have once again raised the bar."
With an 87, Tech posted its highest GSR in school history for the third straight year, an improvement from the mark of 85 earned each of the past two years. The numbers shed light on how well Tech compares with other public institutions within the state, with schools in the Ohio Valley Conference and nationally, when compared with all Division I programs. The impressive GSR mark of 87 displays the continued and sustained growth by Golden Eagle student-athletes over the past several years. Tech ranked third in the state among public institutions in GSR.
In a head-to-head comparison with all other NCAA Division I schools, eight of Tech's 14 programs matched or exceeded the national FGR average of their respective sports.
"We never take these numbers for granted, and once again we are extremely proud of the results," Wilson said. "Tennessee Tech's student-athletes continue to do a tremendous job in balancing the demands of both academics and athletics."
The GSR and FGR numbers of Tech's student-athletes continue to shine when compared with the numbers for the general student body. Eleven of Tech's 14 athletic programs received a higher FGR than Tech's general student body graduation rate.
What makes the result for Golden Eagle student-athletes even more impressive, is the fact that Tennessee Tech's general student body boasted the second-highest graduation rate among all Division I public institutions in the state, finishing behind only the University of Tennessee.
"The results of this most recent NCAA report speak to the diligence of our student-athletes," Wilson said. "Our students are coming in better prepared when they enter Tennessee Tech, and they are staying on track to earn their degrees.
"If you layer the GSR on top of the statewide graduation rates, we can say that Tennessee Tech is among the leaders in the state for graduating our student-athletes," Wilson pointed out. "We are quite proud of the standard that Tech has built."
Tennessee Tech has a GSR of 87 for the six-year period tracking students who entered in 2012. The school's GSR was 78 in 2011, 79 in 2012, 80 in 2013, 79 in 2014, 81 in 2015, 83 in 2016 and 85 in both 2017 and 2018.
The 72 percent one-year Federal Graduation Rate for Tech's student-athletes is 17 percentage points higher than the FGR of Tech's general student body, which is 55 percent for the 2012 incoming freshmen in the report. Tech's one-year FGR mark ranks the institution fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference. In the state of Tennessee, Tech's one-year FGR ranked third overall and first among public institutions. Tech's four-year FGR came in at 70 percent, 18 points higher than the TTU student body's mark of 52 percent.
"When you compare the size of the staff devoted to academic support for student-athletes at Tennessee Tech with the other state schools, the results become even more eye-opening and impressive," Wilson said. "While a couple of our sister institutions within the state of Tennessee have considerably more academic advisors in their athletic academic support staff, we are achieving these results with a staff of four. That speaks volumes for the job that [Assistant A.D. for Academics and Student Welfare] Leveda Dexter, her staff members and our coaches do with stressing the importance of academic work to our student-athletes."
Dexter added, "I am very proud of our student-athletes at Tennessee Tech. They work as hard to succeed academically as they do athletically. The importance of academic success really starts during the recruiting process. When the athletic academic advising staff meets with prospective students, we talk extensively about the importance of being successful in the classroom at Tech. I tend to tell student-athletes, if they are performing well academically, they will naturally perform better athletically because they are not stressed about their school work."
The women's basketball team achieved a rank of 100 on the GSR for the second straight year, tying its highest mark in program history set last year. The women's basketball team also led the Ohio Valley Conference, as did the Golden Eagle women's cross country and track & field teams. Other teams in the top-five in the league were football, soccer, men's golf and tennis. Ranking in the top-five in the state of Tennessee in GSR were women's basketball, football and soccer.
The latest GSR report reflects several other positive trends including a continued high rate of students in athletics making the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, high grade point average earned by Golden Eagle student-athletes, multiple CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and multiple Academic All-Americans.
During the past several years, Tech's student-athletes have posted the highest combined GPA ever achieved at the University, earned a combined 3.0 GPA in 21 straight semesters, and filled the Athletic Director's Honor Roll with more than 200 student-athletes in 16 of the last 20 semesters.
"These most recent reports are continued good news for Tennessee Tech Athletics," said Tech Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Jeff Roberts. "It verifies in numbers that we are successfully fulfilling our mission of graduating our student-athletes. One thing must not be forgotten… first and foremost, we are here to educate. Tech Athletics will strive to increase these scores even more in the future."
Wilson concurred, "As always, our goal is for every student-athlete to leave Tennessee Tech with a diploma in one hand and a championship ring on the other."
Complete NCAA Graduation Success Rate data for all Division I institutions can be accessed at www.ncaa.org.
