San Diego State's four-year graduation success rate for football has dropped from previous years and now is tied for fifth in the nine-school Mountain West Conference, according to data released yesterday by the NCAA.
SDSU's 56 percent GSR in football covers players in the four classes entering from 1998-2001 who graduated within six years. Those classes were recruited by coach Ted Tollner and coached mostly by him and Tom Craft, Tollner's successor.
Nationally, the GSR for all Division I student-athletes in this period was 78 percent, an all-time high.
Student-athletes “are increasingly doing better,” said Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA committee on academic performance. “I think that's something we should recognize and celebrate. Having said that, obviously we have problems in some teams, and we have problems in some sports.”
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Grad success rates
The Graduation Success Rates (GSR) for the Mountain West Conference's four classes that entered school from 1998-2001 and graduated within six years, according to NCAA data released yesterday:
FOOTBALL
Air Force 90
TCU 67
Colorado State 66
Utah 57
BYU, SDSU 56
Wyoming 54
UNLV 53
New Mexico 49
National average: 67
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Air Force, BYU 91
Colorado State 83
Utah 67
Wyoming 56
SDSU 53
TCU 45
UNLV 29
New Mexico 27
National average: 62
Note: USD's men's basketball rate was 79; football's was 82.
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Last year, SDSU's 70 percent football GSR ranked second in the MWC and covered the four classes that entered from 1997-2000. The year before, SDSU football ranked third at 76 percent for classes entering 1996-99 (also Tollner recruits).
In future years, SDSU's four-year football GSR likely will drop because of its recent poor Academic Progress Rates. The APR measures the retention and academic eligibility of a more current cohort of student-athletes. It is considered an indicator of future graduation rates.
For example, SDSU's recent APR of 889 ranked fifth-worst in the nation for the four academic years from 2003-04 through 2006-07 (three years under Craft and one under current coach Chuck Long). SDSU officials have attributed this to a previous lack of resources and attrition in the program – problems they say they have since improved.
Air Force again leads the MWC in GSR in football (90) and is tied for first with Brigham Young in men's basketball (91) for the classes entering school from 1998-2001. New Mexico ranks last in men's basketball GSR (27) and football (49).
“It is something as a university president or as an (athletic director) you want to look at if you have those low numbers,” NCAA President Myles Brand said.
SDSU spokesman Mike May said an academic official who could comment on the rates was not available yesterday.
At SDSU, men's basketball ranks fifth in the MWC at 53 percent. The SDSU baseball program's 41 percent GSR ranks last among the seven MWC baseball schools. SDSU men's volleyball, a program that was eliminated in 2000, and women's tennis, had 100 percent rates. Baseball, football and men's basketball were the only SDSU sports to have four-year GSRs under 70 percent.
Nationally, the only Division I sports to rank below 70 percent in the four-year GSR were men's basketball (62), the Football Bowl Subdivision (67), the Football Championship Subdivision (65), baseball (68) and women's bowling (68).
Unlike the APR program, the GSR figures do not trigger penalties for low rates. The GSR also differs from federal graduation rate standards in that the GSR does not include transfers and other players who left school before graduation on good academic standing.
Brent Schrotenboer: (619) 293-1368; brent.schrotenboer@uniontrib.com
