Nov. 19, 2009

NASHVILLE, TENN. - - Belmont University student-athletes received high marks in the 2009 Graduation Success Rate (GSR) Report released Wednesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

By any means of comparison - to other Atlantic Sun member institutions, the NCAA national average or to the general Belmont student population - Bruin student-athletes stand tall.

The two-pronged report contained both Federal graduation rates, which are based solely on freshman scholarship student-athletes enrolling between 1999 and 2002, and a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) that takes into account transfers in and out of the institution for the same time period. Both surveys are based on the student-athletes having six years to graduate from the time of their initial enrollment.

Five Belmont programs - baseball, men's basketball, men's tennis, women's golf and women's tennis - not only ranked among the nation's best but paced the Atlantic Sun Conference in GSR within their respective sports. Four had perfect scores of 100 for the reported cohort.

Moreover, when compared to the GSR averages by sport for all NCAA Division I institutions, the figures become even more impressive:

• Baseball: +31%
• Men's Basketball: +27%
• Men's Tennis: +16%
• Women's Golf: +12%
• Women's Tennis: +11%
• Women's Cross Country & Track: +10%
• Women's Basketball: +9%
• Men's Soccer: +7%
• Men's Golf: +6%
• Women's Volleyball: +4%