CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Seven University of Illinois athletics programs earned perfect Graduation Success Rate (GSR) scores, as part of Tuesday's GSR and Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) reports released by the NCAA. The Fighting Illini earned an overall GSR of 87, one point above the record-tying national average for all Division I student-athletes.

The data is based on the 2006-2009 cohort, ending with freshman that began at the University of Illinois in 2009-10. Data is calculated after student-athletes are given six years to graduate following their first-time enrollment at a given university.

The seven Illini programs that posted perfect GSR reports were baseball, men's golf, women's basketball, women's gymnastics, soccer, women's swimming and diving and women's tennis. Women's track and field (95), volleyball (93) and men's gymnastics (92) were also above 90.

HIGHLIGHTS
» Eleven Illini programs scord at or above the Division I average GSR for their respective sport.
» Baseball posted its first GSR of 100 since the report began in 1998. Illini baseball is one of only 13 perfect GSRs in Division I baseball and the only Big Ten baseball program to earn a 100.
» Women's gymnastics has posted a GSR of 100 in all 12 years since the report began in 1998.
» Women's soccer has posted a GSR of 100 in all 12 years since the report began in 1998.
» Men's golf posted its fifth straight GSR of 100 and sixth since the report began in 1998.
» Women's basketball posted its third straight GSR of 100 and fourth since the report began in 1998.
» Women's tennis posted its second straight GSR of 100 and fourth overall since the report began in 1998.
» Women's swimming and diving posted its first GSR of 100 in five years and eighth overall. The program has had a GSR over 96 every year since the report began in 1998.
» Women's cross country/track has posted a GSR over 90 in all 12 years since the report began in 1998.
» Volleyball had a GSR over 90 for the sixth consecutive year.
» Men's gymnastics had a GSR over 90 for the seventh consecutive year.
» Men's basketball improved its GSR by seven points.

FGR vs. GSR
GSR begins with the federal cohort, and adds transfer students, midyear enrollees, and non-scholarship students (in specified cases) to the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution. This rate provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes. 

FGR assesses only first-time full-time freshmen in a given cohort and only counts them as academic successes if they graduate from their institution of initial enrollment within a six-year period. It makes no accommodation for transfers into or out of an institution. The rate is very limited because it ignores the large number of transfer students in higher education, but it is still the only rate that allows a direct comparison between student-athletes and the general student-body.