INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA’s research team at the national office has announced its annual graduation and academic success data for all 23 Division II athletic conferences.
 
The NCAA developed the Division II Academic Success Rate (ASR) at the request of college and university presidents who believed the federal graduation rate was outdated. Division II's ASR data includes student-athletes who transfer into a school and removes student-athletes who left the school in good academic standing. In addition, given the partial-scholarship financial aid model of Division II, the ASR data includes student-athletes not on athletically related financial aid. The result is that ASR captures more than 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data. 
 
Even when using the less-inclusive federal rate, Division II student-athletes outperform the general student body by seven percentage points. The federal rate for Division II student-athletes remained the same, with the student-athlete rate at 60 percent, while the federal rate for the general student body rose one percentage point to 53 percent. 
 
As noted in the NCAA’s research, MIAA student-athletes continue to outperform the general student body in academic performance on every single MIAA campus.
 
When comparing the Association’s graduation rate for all students to the graduate rate of student-athletes, the MIAA has one of the largest differentiations in Division II with all students graduating at a 44 percent rate compared to the 56 percent rate of student-athletes. MIAA student-athletes graduate at a 12 percent rate higher than their non student-athlete peers.
 
Among all MIAA sponsored sports, women’s track and field/cross country, softball and women’s golf prove to be the most successful in terms of graduate rate while women’s golf, softball and volleyball have the highest academic success rates. Men’s tennis student-athletes have the highest federal graduation rate and academic success rate for MIAA men’s sports.
 
These federal graduation rates and academic success rates are based on the performance of freshman student-athletes who entered college from 2013-2016. The graduation rate is based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.

To view the NCAA's official release of Division II graduation rates and academic success data, click here.