July 27, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. - USA Today unveiled its first NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Awards today, recognizing schools for their high student-athlete graduation rates. In the report, which ran in the July 27 USA Today sports section, Northwestern tied Duke with the highest graduation rates among NCAA schools that play Division I-A football.
Northwestern and Duke both finished with a 90-percent graduation rate. The only school ahead of the duo, Lehigh (94 percent), is an NCAA Division I-AA institution. According to the latest NCAA membership information, a total of 318 schools were considered Division I.
The first USA Today/NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Awards were based on the NCAA survey in last month's report by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. It includes athletes who were freshmen in the 1994-95 school year. They had six years to earn their diploma. Rankings are determined by federal graduation-rate forms used by schools in Divisions I and II.
Three categories were used to determine the awards:
* overall student-athlete graduation rates.
* the difference between graduating athletes and the general student population.
* improvement from the previously reported rate.
Below are the graduation rate rankings that came out with the Academic Achievement Awards. You can also read the story and hear an audio interview with Northwestern football coach Randy Walker at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2001-07-27-grad-rates.htm
Division I*
Lehigh 94%
Northwestern 90%
Duke 90%
Colgate 89%
Davidson 88%
Valparaiso 88%
Georgetown 87%
Stanford 86%
Bucknell 86%
*Division I includes I-A and I-AA football institutions
Division II
Southern New Hampshire 100%
Merrimack (Mass.) 86%
Shippensburg (Pa.) 83%
Bryant (R.I.) 83%
Molloy (N.Y) 83%
North Florida 79%
Elizabeth City (N.C.) State 78%
Seattle 78%
Texas Lutheran 78%
North Dakota 77%
Division III
St. Joseph (Conn.) 100%
Vassar (N.Y.) 98%
Chestnut Hill (Pa.) 95%
Swarthmore (Pa.) 94%
Messiah (Pa.) 93%
Wellesley (Mass.) 93%
Carleton (Minn.) 92%
Scranton (Pa.) 90%
Johns Hopkins (Md.) 89%
Nazareth (Pa.) 89%