Published on December 6, 2023 by Joey Mullins
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This ranking places Samford among some of the top-ranked schools in the country, including Duke, Notre Dame, Northwestern and Princeton. In addition to the national standings, Samford also had the highest score among all schools in Alabama and the highest in the Southern Conference.
"I am continually impressed with how consistently hard our student-athletes work, both athletically and academically," Samford Deputy Director of Athletics Michelle Durban said. "In every year since the GSR was implemented, our student-athletes have scored among the nation's best. We are all extremely proud of these scores and know they will continue in the years to come."
The university has a long history of performing at a high level for its combination of excellence in both academics and athletic competition and has consistently earned an overall GSR score of above 90 percent since 2012.
The NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the GSR in 2005 to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The most recent GSR measures how many student-athletes in the classes of 2013 through 2016 graduated within six years of their enrollment.
Twelve of Samford's teams earned perfect scores of 100 percent. The Bulldog baseball, men's basketball, men's cross country/track, men's golf, men's tennis, women's basketball, women's cross country/track, women's golf, women's soccer, softball, women's tennis and volleyball teams all registered perfect scores. Every Samford team was at or above the national average in the report.
The NCAA developed the Division I Graduation Success Rate in response to college and university presidents who wanted graduation data that more accurately reflect the mobility among all college students today. The graduation-rate data are based on a six-year cohort prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education.
Samford competes in 17 NCAA Division I sports in the historic Southern Conference.
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.