A seven-year snapshot of graduation rates released Wednesday by the NCAA placed the N.C. State men's basketball program in the bottom half of the ACC academically.
The latest seven-year graduation success rates, or GSRs, painted a different picture than the Academic Progress Rates released in May by college athletics' governing body. Using a different formula and examining a different time frame, the previously released APRs placed the Wolfpack men's basketball team atop the ACC, with an Academic Progress Rate score of 995 out of possible 1,000. The APR measured the progress toward graduation of students who entered school from 2004 through 2008.
However, according to Wednesday's GSRs, which examined the records of student-athletes entering school from 1999 through 2002, N.C. State's GSR in men's basketball was 45 percent, ninth-best among the ACC's 12 schools.
N.C. State's football program also posted a GSR, for students entering from 1999 through 2002, of 57 percent, a rate trailing those of the other five Football Bowl Subdivision schools in the Carolinas. It also put the Wolfpack's graduation success rate at 11th out of 12 ACC football.
N.C. State officials said Wednesday that the APRs released this spring provide a more accurate academic assessment of the university's teams.
"It's really clear as mud," said Carrie Leger, who directs the academic support program at N.C. State. "The numbers come out, and it's not comparing apples to apples. It's a different group of students."
Leger said N.C. State already has data showing that graduation rates moving forward are going to improve significantly. N.C. State athletic director Lee Fowler said that men's basketball players transferring out of the program almost seven years ago had a big effect on the graduation rate released Wednesday.
"[Coach] Sidney [Lowe] never had anything to do with these kids that are being reported right now," Fowler said.
