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 Tuesday afternoon by the NCAA.
The current report gives graduation information about students and student-athletes entering in 2013. 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. Our student-athletes continue to do a tremendous job in balancing the demands of both academics and athletics."
With an 84, Tech posted a GSR over 80 for the sixth-straight year and of at least 84 for the fourth consecutive year. 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 84 displays the continued and sustained growth by Golden Eagle student-athletes over the past several years. Tech ranked fifth in the state among public institutions in GSR and first among the four public OVC institutions in the state.
In a head-to-head comparison with all other NCAA Division I schools, five of Tech's 14 programs matched or exceeded the national FGR average of their respective sports, including the football, tennis, women's cross country and track & field, soccer, and volleyball programs.
The GSR and FGR numbers of Tech's student-athletes continue to shine when compared with the numbers for the general student body. Nine 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."
Tennessee Tech has a GSR of 84 for the six-year period tracking students who entered in 2013. The school's GSR was 78 in 2011, 79 in 2012, 80 in 2013, 79 in 2014, 81 in 2015, 83 in 2016, 85 in both 2017 and 2018, and 87 in 2019.
The 53 percent one-year Federal Graduation Rate for Tech's student-athletes is just one percentage point lower than the FGR of Tech's general student body, which is 54 percent for the 2013 incoming freshmen in the report. Tech's four-year FGR came in at 65 percent, 12 points higher than the TTU student body's mark of 53 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] Dr. Leveda Birdwell, her staff members and our coaches do with stressing the importance of academic work to our student-athletes."
Birdwell 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."
Both the softball team and volleyball team achieved a rank of 100 on the GSR, leading or tying for the lead in the Ohio Valley Conference. It marked the highest GSR in the softball program's history and the highest for the volleyball team in five years. It also represented the eighth time the volleyball program earned a GSR of 100.
Also leading the OVC in GSR was the women's cross country and track & field program, posting a 95. Other teams in the top-five in the league were football and tennis. Ranking in the top-five in the state of Tennessee in GSR were softball and volleyball.
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 23 straight semesters, and filled the Athletic Director's Honor Roll with more than 200 student-athletes in 18 of the last 22 semesters.
Complete NCAA Graduation Success Rate data for all Division I institutions can be accessed at www.ncaa.org.
