AMES – Iowa State student-athletes registered a 71% graduation rate in the most recent data released by the NCAA. That is the second-highest mark for Cyclone student-athletes in the last 15 years.
Iowa State student-athletes had a higher graduation rate than undergraduates (70%) for only the third time dating back to 1999. The last time that occurred was in 2009 when student-athletes registered a 78% grad rate, best in school history.
The Cyclones were one of four Big 12 schools with higher grad rates for student-athletes than undergraduates and ISU’s student-athlete mark was second-highest in the Big 12.
TCU (76%) had the conference’s top mark, followed by the Cyclones (71%), Kansas (70%), West Virginia (65%), Kansas State and Texas (64%), Baylor and Texas Tech (60%), Oklahoma (58%) and Oklahoma State (48%).
Four ISU sports had the highest mark in the Big 12: volleyball (89%), women’s swimming (89%), women’s gymnastics (92%) and men’s golf (89%).
Clarifying note:
The Cyclone men’s basketball team did not graduate any student-athletes from the 2006 cohort class, the data set for this release.
This year’s federal graduation data is based upon recruiting classes from six years ago at a time when Iowa State was transitioning between coaching staffs.
Transfers, even those in good academic standing, are logged as non-graduates in the federal rate. The three freshmen members of that recruiting class in 2006 transferred from Iowa State – all in good academic standing – and thus were counted as non-graduates in the report.
Way to go ISU. Iowa would probably be up there too but too many of their athletes are in jail.