The University of Minnesota Crookston was one of three Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) schools to earn the Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence from the NCAA announced in December 2023. The Golden Eagles posted an Academic Success of Rate of 90%.
The President’s Award for Academic Excellence is awarded to Division II schools that have achieved an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. For the second consecutive year, 44 member schools have earned this honor, including three from the NSIC.
Minnesota Crookston (90%), Augustana University (91%), and Concordia-St. Paul (93%) from the NSIC each earned the honor.
"Congratulations to the 44 schools who have earned this prestigious award," said Steven Shirley, president of Minot State and chair of the Division II Presidents Council. "It takes a collective effort from the student-athletes, coaches, university and athletic administrators to earn an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher, and I'm very excited to recognize these schools."
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 non scholarship student-athletes 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 7%. For Division II student-athletes, the federal rate is 60%, while the general student body federal rate is 53%.
