Academic Progress Rates in baseball have risen steadily from 933.3 in 2003-04 (the first year the data were compiled) to 973.0 in the most recent year. Graduation Success Rates also jumped by 7 percentage points recently and are at their highest levels since reporting began.

The methodology for calculating the federal rate comes from the Student Right-to-Know Act passed in November 1990. It is limited in who it tracks, but the Department of Education has held onto this methodology to this day.

Under this federal formula, student-athlete cohorts must consist only of first-time, full-time freshmen entering in a given fall term while receiving athletically related financial aid. Student-athletes not receiving such aid at entry and those who transfer into the institution are not included in the cohort. In addition, transfers out of any school are...

It’s been almost 25 years since the NCAA first began collecting and publishing student-athlete graduation rates, and in all but two of them – the first two, actually – the data show student-athlete rates consistently surpass those of their student-body counterparts.

In January 1990, the NCAA membership passed legislation requiring schools to report rates disaggregated by race, gender and sport (specifically, football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and men’s and women’s track/cross country). The vote at the 1990 NCAA Convention preceded by about 10 months the U.S. Congress’...