Student-athlete diploma outcomes provide a detailed look at the types of degrees earned by NCAA student-athletes and how those trends vary across sports, divisions, and demographics. This data helps illustrate not just whether student-athletes graduate, but what they study and how academic choices evolve over time.
The dashboards below highlight degree patterns across undergraduate programs, offering insight into fields of study, sport-specific trends, and differences between student-athletes and the general student body.
How Diploma Data is Collected and Reported
Student-athlete diploma data is collected from NCAA member schools and focuses on undergraduate degrees earned by student-athletes.
- Data includes degree type and academic major for student-athletes who have graduated
- Information is aggregated to show trends across sports, divisions, and demographic groups
- Data reflects completed degrees, not current enrollment or intended majors
- Reporting focuses on identifying patterns over time rather than individual outcomes
What This Data Measures
The diploma dashboards are designed to help answer key questions about student-athlete academic outcomes:
- What fields of study are most common among student-athletes
- How degree choices vary by sport or division
- Differences between student-athletes and the overall student population
- Trends in academic areas over time
This provides a more complete view of the student-athlete experience beyond graduation rates alone.
Understanding the Data
Before exploring the dashboards, it's important to understand how the data is structured:
- Undergraduate focus: Data includes only undergraduate degrees earned by student-athletes
- Cohort-based reporting: Data is grouped by graduating classes over a defined time period
- Field of study groupings: Majors are categorized into broader academic areas to allow for comparison
- Comparative analysis: Some views compare student-athletes to the overall student body
Because of these factors, percentages may vary depending on how data is grouped or filtered within each dashboard.
NCAA Division I Diploma Dashboard
NCAA Division II Diploma Dashboard
Methodology
Degree
- IPEDS completion data and APP/APC data capture the following race/ethnicity categories: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, White, Two or More Races, Other, and International.
- In the tabs comparing degrees awarded between student-athletes and the general student body, race/ethnicity can be disaggregated into four categories: Black, Hispanic/Latino, Other and White. The “Other” category includes American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, Two or More Races, Other, and International.
- In the sport-specific tabs, race/ethnicity can be disaggregated into three categories: Black, Other and White. In these tabs Hispanic/Latino is included in “Other” due to the size of the sample. Please note that the bottom row on each of these tabs includes the total number of student-athletes by race/ethnicity in each sport. Data specific to sports with low Ns by race (e.g., Black males in baseball) should be used with caution.
Recommendations for use of this dashboard
We recommend data be examined separately by race and gender when possible due to the differences in the race/ethnicity and gender proportions in the student-athlete population and student body.
