Hillsdale Athletics Earns NCAA Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence

Hillsdale Athletics Earns NCAA Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence

Courtesy of Brad Monastiere, Hillsdale Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations and Event Management

Hillsdale College is one of 27 Division II institutions nationwide - and the only one in the GLIAC - named a winner of the NCAA Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. The award was announced by the NCAA Wednesday afternoon.

Hillsdale earned an Academic Success Rating (ASR) of 93, which ranks 14th overall among all NCAA Division II member schools. University of the Sciences - Philadelphia was No. 1in the rankings with a 99, followed by Satin Michael's and Point Loma Nazarene.

The Academic Success Rate is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial enrollment in college and includes virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletics scholarships.

Six other schools in the Midwest Region landed on the list, which requires an ASR of 90 or better: Maryville, Rockhurst, Davis & Elkins, William Jewell, Cedarville and Lewis. Davis & Elkins and Cedarville are members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, where Hillsdale will become a member on July 1, 2017.

The Division II ASR also captures about 51 percent more college athletes than the federal graduation rate. Unlike the federal graduation rate, the ASR also counts student-athletes who transfer to a school after initial enrollment elsewhere and removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible. The national ASR is 71 percent for student-athletes who entered college from 2005 through 2008.

Regardless of which measure is used, Division II college athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. The federal rate for the 2008 entering class of student-athletes was 55 percent, compared to 49 percent for the general student body.