South Carolina Graduation Success Rate Figures Announced

The University of South Carolina athletic program placed fourth in the Southeastern Conference in the latest Graduation Success Rate, released Wednesday by the NCAA.

The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) measures the number of scholarship student-athletes that graduate within a six-year period of their initial full-time enrollment. For this report, the GSR is based on student-athletes who entered college in the fall of 2018.

South Carolina’s athletic teams had a 94 percent score, which was behind only Alabama (96), Mississippi State (96) and Vanderbilt (95) in the SEC. South Carolina’s Football GSR score (96) ranked second among SEC schools and South Carolina schools. It tied for 14^th among all Power 5 schools.

“Our student-athletes are committed to be the best they can be, both on the field and in the classroom,” said Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati.  “The GSR is an indication of academic success that will propel our student-athletes to career success.  Our Dodie Academic Enrichment Staff puts in the time and effort to help our student-athletes reach their goal of graduation.”

An outstanding nine teams scored a perfect GSR (100): Men’s Golf, Men’s Tennis, Softball, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Track and Field/Cross Country, Women’s Golf, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Tennis and Volleyball.

“Our 94 percent graduate success rate is a testament to the University’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence, student achievement, and post-graduate preparedness,” said Charlie Ball, Senior Associate AD for Academics. “Ranking fourth among institutions in the Southeastern Conference underscores the dedication of our Dodie Anderson Academic Team and Athletics Department to fostering an environment where students are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to excel beyond graduation. This distinction reflects our continued pursuit of educational distinction and our role in advancing the broader mission of higher education in the conference and beyond.”

A Record of Academic Success

Gamecock Athletics has developed a proud tradition of academic success, achieving numerous honors and reaching high levels of achievement during the 2024-25 academic year.

• Student-athletes at USC ended the Spring 2025 semester with a departmental grade point average (GPA) of 3.45.  It is the 37th consecutive semester with a departmental GPA above 3.0.  The cumulative GPA for all student-athletes in each sport since they arrived at Carolina is 3.46, which is the second highest cumulative grade point average ever for Gamecock student-athletes.
• 128 Gamecock student-athletes earned their degrees during the 2024-25 academic year.
• South Carolina had 477 members on the SEC Academic Honor Roll (fall, winter, spring, first-year), which is third in the SEC. The 477 represent the highest number for Carolina in the history of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. Since 2015-16, South Carolina leads all schools with 4,225 members of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.  South Carolina led all schools in SEC Academic Honor Roll in seven of the last 10 years (2nd – 2017-18; 3rd – 2023-24; 3rd in 2024-25).
• Ten Gamecocks earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-America honors.  It is the most selections ever for USC in the history of the Academic All-America program (previous high: 7 – 2013-14 & 2008-9).  Also, this year marks the first time two honorees from football made the first-team in a given year.  The list includes:  Raheim Sanders, Football (1st Team Football), Kyle Kennard, Football (1st Team Football), Dylan Taggart, Men’s Track & Field (1st Team Men’s Track & Field), Ethan Ballek, Men’s Soccer (2nd Team Men’s Soccer), Cat Barry, Women’s Soccer (2nd Team Women’s Soccer), Sarah Hamner, Women’s Tennis (2nd Team Women’s Tennis), Ariana Rodi, Softball (2nd Team Softball), Louis Rydqvist, Women’s Golf (2nd Team Women’s At-Large), Connor Thomson, Men’s Tennis (2nd Team Men’s Tennis) and, Lexi Winters, Softball (3rd Team, Softball).
• All University of South Carolina’s countable intercollegiate sports posted a multiyear score of 950 or better, according to the Academic Progress Rate (APR) statistics for the 2023-24 academic year.  Carolina had 13 sports reach a perfect single-year score (1000) for the 2023-24 academic year, the second highest total ever by Gamecock Athletics, only behind 14 sports total in 2015-16.  Sixteen of the 18 sports maintained or improved on their previous year APR scores.  Eleven of the 18 measured sports surpassed the national multi-year average while volleyball registered a perfect single-year score for the 11th-straight year. Beach Volleyball continues its streak of perfect APR scoring since the NCAA started collecting data for the sport.