44 DII schools receive Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence

The Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence has been awarded to 44 Division II schools that have achieved an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. 

Hillsdale was the top performer, earning an ASR of 99%, followed by Bentley with an ASR of 98%. Saint Michael's and Thomas Jefferson University had an ASR of 97%, and Rollins rounded out the top five with an ASR of 96%. 

The Northeast-10 Conference led the division with seven athletics programs achieving scores of 90% or more, followed by the Sunshine State Conference with six programs and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference with five programs.

"It takes a village to support student-athletes and create the balanced environment for them to thrive academically and athletically," said Jason Jones, associate athletics director for compliance at Catawba and chair of the Division II Academic Requirements Committee. "This prestigious honor recognizes 44 schools that have achieved academic excellence, and I'm thrilled to congratulate them."

The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes those who transferred out of the school while academically eligible. The ASR also includes over 30,000 nonscholarship student-athletes in the division who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.

Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rate, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 6 percentage points. For Division II student-athletes, the federal rate is 59%, while the general student body federal rate is 53%.

This is the 14th year the award has been given. Seven schools have earned the award every year: Assumption, Bentley, Eckerd, Hillsdale, Rockhurst, Rollins and Saint Michael's.