Ohio State Athletics Posts High Academic Progress Rates

Ohio State and its student-athletes have shown marked improvement in the classroom over the last five years, according to NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate data released on June 4. 

In the 20th year of academic progress rate, or APR, data — which provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship, factoring in academic eligibility, retention and graduation — Ohio State posted a cross-sport multi-year rate of 989. This most recent data was based on a multi-year rate that averages scores from the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.

Out of the 31 Ohio State athletic programs that were in the data set, nine had a perfect multi-year score of 1,000, including football. They joined Harvard as the only two Division I football programs to post a perfect multi-year score. 

“It speaks to the maturity of our team,” Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day said on June 4. “It’s cool to go to class. It’s cool to get your degree. It’s cool to do well in school. It speaks to the type of guys we have and the work that they’ve done. It speaks to our assistant coaches and how much they’re involved with it. 

“But also (Ohio State’s Student-Athlete Support Services Office,  or SASSO), which does an unbelievable job. (Associate director for football academics) Deana Ruggeri and her entire staff do a great job providing our guys with the resources they need through tutors. But ultimately, it goes back to the guys. They are the ones who have to do that. I am very proud of the work they’re doing.” 

Men’s and women’s cross country, men’s fencing, field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball joined football as the only programs to earn perfect multi-year scores, while another 15 programs had a score of at least 990. 

“Buckeye student-athletes and athletic programs have again done us proud in their academic work,” said Ohio State faculty athletics representative Dr. John Davidson. “After posting a record Graduate Success Rate (GSR) in Autumn 2023, the most recent APR data shows that, despite an increasingly complex transfer landscape, our retention and eligibility numbers are extremely strong and every program is well positioned for the future.”

This past academic year, 227 Ohio State student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-Big Ten team (spring and at-large sports academic honors will be awarded later in June), and 811 were honored as Ohio State scholar athletes.