UCCS Performs Well in Latest Release of NCAA Student-Athlete Success Rates

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The University of Colorado Colorado Springs posted an NCAA Division II Student-Athlete Academic Success Rate above 75 percent for the third consecutive season in new data released by the NCAA earlier this month. The Mountain Lions finished with a rate of 79 percent for the 2005-06 cohort of student-athletes.

"Intercollegiate athletics at its best is an added experience while pursuing one's degree," said UCCS Athletic Director Steve Kirkham. "I am very proud of our coaches and student-athletes who are winning both in the classroom and in their competitive field. The proper perspective is what we have and will continue to strive for."

The NCAA Academic Success Rate counts all student-athletes and measures those who graduate at the same institution they enrolled in, transferred and graduated at a different institution, and those who left school in good academic standing. These all contrast to the U.S. Department of Education Federal Graduation Rate, which measures only those student-athletes who receive financial aid for athletics and who graduate at the same institution their originally enrolled in.

UCCS is coming off an all-time best of a 91 percent Academic Success Rate last year for the 2004-05 cohort. The Mountain Lions are one of five RMAC institutions, and one of three public institutions in the conference, to post an Academic Success Rate of 75 percent or greater in the past three years. The 91 percent mark has been matched once by another RMAC institution and no other institution has surpassed that mark.

For individual sport programs, the UCCS men's golf team finished with a percent Academic Success Rate of 100 for the third consecutive season. Women's basketball, women's cross country and track and field, softball and volleyball each finished with success rates above 85 percent.

Nationally, the Division II Academic Success Rate came in at 72 percent for the 2005-06 cohort. UCCS has maintained an Academic Success Rate greater than the national rate in each of the last three years.

The Mountain Lions were also ranked No. 25 in the National Collegiate Scouting Association College Power Rankings earlier this year and seventh among public institutions for Division II. Those rankings measured the overall average between an institution's ranking in the U.S. News & World Reporting academic standing, the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup athletic standing and the federal graduation rate.