Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/200019
Under the Dome Notre Dame Wins Seventh Straight GSR National Title John Wooden won a remarkable seven consecutive national titles (1967‑73) as the UCLA men's basketball coach. Notre Dame has matched that total in a different arena. For the seventh straight year, Notre Dame posted the top NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figure (99) for its student-athletes based on entering classes from 2003‑06. The NCAA-issued GSR and federal figures were released Oct. 24. The GSR began in 2005 to complement the federal graduation rate, whose graduation numbers could be a little more misleading. In the federal calculations, transfers were held against a school's graduation rate — even if the person who transferred was in good academic standing and graduated elsewhere. For example, let's say Notre Dame's football team signed 20 players one year and three of them transferred elsewhere. Even if all 20 end up graduating, Notre Dame would be credited with only an 85 percent graduation rate (17 out of 20). The GSR would have it 17 out of 17. For the fifth year in a row, Notre Dame paced the nation in four GSR categories: all student-athletes (at 99), male studentathletes (98), female student-athletes (100) and black student-athletes (96). Using the federal formula, Notre Dame graduated a four-year average of 88 percent of its student-athletes, just behind Stanford at 93 and Northwestern at 89. Here are some of the 2013 NCAA Graduation Rates, which is the data for student-athletes who enrolled between 2003-06 (numbers are percentages): All Student-Athletes 1. Notre Dame, 99 2. Duke, 98 3. (tie) Northwestern, Stanford, 97 5. Boston College, 96 Federal Rate 1. Stanford, 93 2. Northwestern, 89 3. Notre Dame, 88 4. Duke, 86 5. Rice, 84 Black Student-Athletes 1. Notre Dame, 96 2. (tie) Duke, Rice, 95 4. Northwestern, 92 5. U.S. Air Force Academy, 91 Federal Rate 1. Rice, 91 2. Northwestern, 88 3. Stanford, 83 4. Duke, 81 5. Notre Dame, 79 Football Student-Athletes 1. Northwestern, 97 2. Rice, 96 3. (tie) Notre Dame, Boston College, 94 5. (tie) U.S. Air Force Academy, Stanford, 93 Federal Rate 1. Northwestern, 92 2. (tie) Rice, Stanford, 89 4. Boston College, 86 5. Duke, 81 9. Notre Dame, 75