Minnesota Gophers Athletes Thriving in the Classroom

We all know that sometimes the student part of the student-athlete takes on less importance to the general public. We all care strongly if our favorite teams win games, but do we really care if our favorite athletes are cutting it in the classroom? Luckily for most Gophers fans, we are able to enjoy both, and its a testament to the Gophers coaching, academic and leadership staffs.

Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle released one of his occasional blog posts this week all about the state of academics in Gopher athletes. And it was a very positive picture.

According to Coyle the Gophers are in a better position than they have ever been. Minnesota athletes collectively have a 3.24 GPA. That is the highest average ever recorded since the department began to keep records. Every single athletic program-EVERY SINGLE ONE had a team GPA of over 3.0 last semester. Teams are setting individual program records as well.

For those of us who went to college, you remember how hard it was to keep your grades up...and most of us weren’t dedicating nearly as much time to athletics as all of these students are.

Strong grades are leading to a record number of student athletes graduating. The Gopher athletic department announced earlier this spring that they have a 92% graduation success rate of all athletes. It’s the best number in the history of the Gopher athletic department, and is is the best among the 13 public schools of the Big Ten.

Going back to just this academic year the Gophers continue to reach new levels of academic success. A whopping 351 Gophers were named Academic All-Big Ten this year, a record for Minnesota. Twenty-three Gophers were named Academic All-District, the second-highest total in Gopher history. Fifteen Gopher programs scored a perfect 1,000 APR including some of the most successful ones on the field like baseball, softball, both hockey teams, and volleyball.

As Coyle summed it up best at the end of his blog:

Perhaps summed up best in this stat, Minnesota has been the nation’s No. 1 school with respect to student-athlete academic success in four of the past five years. It’s significant enough that it bears repeating - the No. 1 public school in the entire country.

It’s easy to be proud of our athletes for what they do on the field, but it should be just as easy to be even more impressed by what they are doing off the field. The Gophers are doing it the right way. That is what really matters. Ski-U-Mah Gopher athletes...you deserve it!