LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – After diving deeper into the academic data released by the NCAA back on December 6, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s impressive numbers continue to stand out. The PSAC compares favorably across Division II in both measured metrics–Federal Graduation Rate and Academic Success Rate–in the majority of its sponsored sports.
The conference’s Federal Graduation Rate equals or betters the national Division II average in all 19 combined men’s and women’s sports that the PSAC offers. Additionally, when compared to all other 22 Division II conferences, the PSAC’s FGR is ranked in the top five in eight women’s sports and six men’s sports. For the women, golf (83%), softball (79%), track and field (81%), and volleyball (79%) rank first. For the men, baseball’s 74% is the top mark in Division II.
| Federal Graduation Rates – Division II Conference Comparison |
| Sport |
PSAC Federal Graduation Rate |
Division II
Conference Rank |
| Women’s Basketball |
63% |
T – 10th |
| Field Hockey |
80% |
2nd |
| Women’s Golf |
83% |
1st |
| Women’s Lacrosse |
76% |
T- 5th |
| Women’s Soccer |
77% |
2nd |
| Softball |
79% |
T- 1st |
| Women’s Swimming |
78% |
7th |
| Women’s Tennis |
78% |
5th |
| Women’s Track and Field |
81% |
1st |
| Women’s Volleyball |
79% |
T- 1st |
| Baseball |
74% |
1st |
| Men’s Basketball |
50% |
9th |
| Football |
51% |
T- 4th |
| Men’s Golf |
69% |
T- 7th |
| Men’s Soccer |
66% |
4th |
| Men’s Swimming |
70% |
T- 5th |
| Men’s Tennis |
69% |
9th |
| Men’s Track and Field |
74% |
2nd |
| Wrestling |
63% |
3rd |
The PSAC also equals or betters the NCAA Division II average Academic Success Rate in 16 of 19 applicable sports. Women’s sports leaders when compared to the rest of Division II include golf (98%) and women’s volleyball (95%), while three men’s sports lead the way nationally (baseball’s 88%, men’s soccer’s 84%, and wrestling’s 78%). The PSAC also boasts eight women’s sports and five men’s sports in the top five when compared with all 22 other Division II conferences.
| Academic Success Rates – Division II Conference Comparison |
| Sport |
PSAC Academic Success Rate |
Division II
Conference Rank |
| Women’s Basketball |
95% |
2nd |
| Field Hockey |
95% |
3rd |
| Women’s Golf |
98% |
1st |
| Women’s Lacrosse |
93% |
T- 4th |
| Women’s Soccer |
93% |
4th |
| Softball |
94% |
T- 3rd |
| Women’s Swimming |
93% |
7th |
| Women’s Tennis |
92% |
14th |
| Women’s Track and Field |
91% |
4th |
| Women’s Volleyball |
95% |
T- 1st |
| Baseball |
74% |
1st |
| Men’s Basketball |
50% |
T- 10th |
| Football |
51% |
4th |
| Men’s Golf |
69% |
10th |
| Men’s Soccer |
66% |
T- 1st |
| Men’s Swimming |
70% |
T- 8th |
| Men’s Tennis |
69% |
7th |
| Men’s Track and Field |
74% |
4th |
| Wrestling |
63% |
1st |
INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA released new data featuring the Division II Federal Graduation Rates and Academic Success Rates on Wednesday afternoon.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference totaled 6,834 graduates among its 8,248 student-athletes who enrolled during the years of 2013 to 2016. For the purposes of the study, a student-athlete must earn his or her degree within six years of their initial enrollment to be considered as a graduate.
Overall, the PSAC produced an 83% Academic Success Rate and a 69% Federal Graduation Rate among student-athletes. The conference's 83% Academic Success Rate grew by 1% when compared to the previous study and is the third-highest mark among all of Division II conferences that sponsor football, bested only by the Northeast 10 Conference (88%) and Great Lakes Valley Conference (84%).
The PSAC's ASR was also seventh highest among all Division II conferences despite enrolling the largest number of student-athletes (8,248) in the division – nearly 2,000 more students-athletes than the next-highest conference (the South Atlantic Conference's 6,270, who tallied an ASR of 74%).
"The main priority across our member institutions continues to be the sustained academic success and graduation of our student-athletes," said PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray. "This year's data once again shows that the focus of our membership in those areas is paying off. We are extremely proud of our student-athletes' academic successes and look forward to supporting them as we strive for even more improvement in the future."
The NCAA developed the Division II 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 7 percentage points. The federal rate for Division II student-athletes remained the same, with the student-athlete rate at 60%, while the federal rate for the general student body rose 1 percentage point to 53%.
Notable single-class student-athlete increases in ASR over the 17 years of calculating this rate in Division II include overall (from 69% to 77%), Black men (from 42% to 51%), Black women (from 61% to 76%), Hispanic/Latinx men (48% to 66%) and Hispanic/Latinx women (63% to 80%).
In addition, there have been notable increases in ASR for two-year transfer student-athletes (from 57% to 73%) and four-year transfer student-athletes (from 66% to 77%) over the past 10 years.
The study covers all 23 PSAC sports, while also adding men's ice hockey, women's ice hockey, men's lacrosse, and women's rowing, which are not PSAC sponsored sports.
Data for several sport groups are revealed in the NCAA study, as well. Eleven sports – men's ice hockey, field hockey, women's golf, women's lacrosse, women's rowing, women's soccer, softball, women's swimming, women's tennis, women's track/cross country, and women's volleyball, all posted an academic success rate of at least 90% or above.
For more information, visit the NCAA Release link above. Find complete data tables below:
| 2013-2016 PSAC ASR per sport compared to NCAA DII average |
| Sport |
PSAC ASR % |
NCAA II ASR % |
| M Baseball |
88% |
78% |
| M Basketball |
69% |
67% |
| M Football |
63% |
56% |
| M Golf |
81% |
83% |
| M Soccer |
84% |
77% |
| M Swimming |
77% |
79% |
| M Tennis |
89% |
86% |
| M Track/Cross Country |
80% |
72% |
| M Wrestling |
78% |
60% |
| M Other Sports* |
77% |
75% |
| W Basketball |
86% |
84% |
| W Field Hockey |
95% |
95% |
| W Golf |
98% |
91% |
| W Lacrosse |
93% |
92% |
| W Soccer |
93% |
89% |
| W Softball |
94% |
89% |
| W Swimming |
93% |
92% |
| W Tennis |
92% |
93% |
| W Track/Cross Country |
91% |
86% |
| W Volleyball |
95% |
88% |
| W Other Sports* |
95% |
89% |
| 2013-16 Student-Athlete Academic Success Rates: Division II Conferences |
| Conference |
Enrolled |
Graduated |
Rate |
| California Collegiate Athletic Association |
3927 |
2939 |
75% |
| Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference |
2913 |
2452 |
84% |
| Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association |
2682 |
1750 |
65% |
| Conference Carolinas |
4848 |
3699 |
76% |
| East Coast Conference |
1994 |
1691 |
85% |
| Great American Conference |
4572 |
3115 |
68% |
| Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
3932 |
3004 |
76% |
| Great Lakes Valley Conference |
6002 |
5044 |
84% |
| Great Midwest Athletic Conference |
5351 |
4348 |
81% |
| Great Northwest Athletic Conference |
2678 |
2152 |
80% |
| Gulf South Conference |
4623 |
3350 |
72% |
| Lone Star Conference |
5627 |
3887 |
69% |
| Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association |
6033 |
4272 |
71% |
| Mountain East Conference |
5349 |
3593 |
67% |
| Northeast-10 Conference |
5183 |
4553 |
88% |
| Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference |
5800 |
4682 |
81% |
| Pacific West Conference |
2976 |
2516 |
85% |
| Peach Belt Conference |
1910 |
1495 |
78% |
| Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference |
8248 |
6834 |
83% |
| Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference |
6256 |
4430 |
71% |
| South Atlantic Conference |
6270 |
4623 |
74% |
| Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
2882 |
1835 |
64% |
| Sunshine State Conference |
3876 |
3439 |
89% |
| Independent |
820 |
524 |
64% |