VILLANOVA, Pa.—For the second consecutive year Villanova Athletics has matched a department record with a 99 percent score in the NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) metric. New data was released on Wednesday afternoon and Villanova is one of just five Division I schools nationwide to post a score of 99 percent or higher. The academic achievement of Wildcats student-athletes continues to rank Villanova among the most elite universities in America for its combination of academic excellence and athletic success.
The overall score of 99 percent is the highest among BIG EAST schools and puts Villanova in a class of prestigious universities which includes a trio of Ivy League schools – Columbia, Harvard and Yale – as well as Bucknell. Wednesday's release consisted of the 2013-2016 cohort, meaning student-athletes who entered college during those years and graduated within six years.
Of particular note for the Wildcats in the latest data is 14 varsity programs who achieved a perfect 100 percent GSR score. Villanova had each of its 10 women's varsity programs earn a perfect score along with four men's varsity sports. Only two BIG EAST schools had more than 10 sports with a perfect 100 percent score. The perfect scores from the Wildcats came from women's basketball, women's cross country/track & field, field hockey, women's lacrosse, rowing, women's soccer, softball, women's swimming & diving, volleyball, water polo, baseball, men's basketball, men's cross country/track & field and men's soccer.
The across-the-board success of Villanova student-athletes looks even more impressive under closer examination. In the high-profile sports of men's and women's basketball, the Wildcats are one of four BIG EAST schools to have each of those teams post a 100 percent score. For the second straight year Villanova is one of only two BIG EAST programs to have its women's basketball team post a perfect 100 percent score in both the NCAA Graduation Success Rate and the similar Federal Graduation Rate (FGR).
The NCAA GSR differs from the federal rate calculation in two important ways. First, the GSR holds colleges accountable for those student-athletes who transfer into their school. Second, the GSR does not penalize colleges whose student-athletes transfer in good academic standing. The overall score of 99 percent for Wildcats student-athletes continues to outpace the general student body (91 percent).
Villanova's football program – currently one of eight schools still competing in this year's FCS playoffs – tied its highest-ever graduation success rate with a 96 percent score. This is the second straight year that the Wildcats have posted a 96 percent NCAA GSR and Villanova leads all CAA Football programs with both the highest NCAA rate and the highest score (93 percent) in the federal rate calculation.
Wednesday's release by the NCAA set a new record for Division I student-athletes. The single-cohort GSR increased by one point to a record 91%, the highest rate recorded in the 20-plus years the NCAA GSR has been tracked. Since its inception, Graduation Success Rates for Division student-athletes have increased by 17 points.
Since the start of the 2019-20 academic year, the Wildcats have won a combined 16 regular season and postseason conference championships. Villanova teams have made 15 national postseason appearances during that time, including the women's basketball team reaching the Sweet 16 earlier this year, the women's outdoor track & field squad posting a top-20 national finish in 2022 and the men's basketball team reaching the Final Four in 2022 for the fourth time since 2009. The football team won its second CAA Football title in three years earlier this Fall and earned the league's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
