Score will improve with correction
South Carolina's Graduate Success Rating in football is not as bad as it appears.
An error made by the university resulted in a poor 39-percent score when the NCAA release the GSR data earlier this week, but a correction will raise the score to a more respectable 55 percent.
"There was an error with the data submitted for the 2004 football cohort," said Zach Kelehear, USC's faculty athletics representative, in a release. "The NCAA has the correct data and has assured the university that these published rates will be updated within the next one to two weeks."
The GSR is a measure of how many student-athletes who enroll in a given year (in this case, 2004) graduate within six years. It differs from the federal graduation rate because it allows schools to factor in transfers and not count student-athletes who transfer away from a school. Student-athletes who leave prior to graduation also do not factor in as long as they were academically eligible when they left school.
USC's data submission to the NCAA failed to account for 11 former football players who had graduated within the time frame, the school said. The mistake was realized prior to the release of the GSR, but the NCAA had put a freeze on the data.
A 55-percent score will be a slight drop-off from USC's 57-percent score last year. It will give USC the 11th-best score in the Southeastern Conference, ahead of only Ole Miss. Vanderbilt is first in the conference with 86 percent.
There are no sanctions or penalties tied to the GSR. It is considered a ranking of lesser importance compared to the preferred Academic Progress Rate (APR).
The APR, which is "a term-by-term measure of eligibility and retention for Division I student-athletes that was developed as an early indicator of eventual graduation rates," according to the NCAA's official website, can cost programs scholarships and even postseason eligibility if scores are poor enough.
A rolling four-year measure, the APR is considered more current then the GSR. The 2004 GSR cohort predates Athletics Director Eric Hyman, coach Steve Spurrier and President Harris Pastides.
USC football has no concerns in the APR. Its current score from the 2009-10 academic year release is 954, good for sixth-best in the SEC and well above the threshold for potential penalties. The program has experienced unprecedented academic success of late, recording record team GPAs in each of the last two years.
The only other USC athletic program to receive a GSR score less than 71 percent was the men's basketball program, which received a 57 percent. The score was a 4-percent improvement from the previous GSR releases. USC lost scholarships due to APR penalties under former coach Dave Odom, but has climbed back over the penalty threshold under current coach Darrin Horn.
The two-time defending national champion baseball program received a 71 percent in the new release. The USC men's tennis, women's basketball, women's golf, women's tennis and volleyball teams all had 100 percents. The school's overall athletics score was 73 percent.