Dec. 7, 2017
Waco, Texas----- San Jose State University is one of 82 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs honored this year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) for academic achievement based on the NCAA's Graduation Success Rate (GSR) formula.
Based on this year's NCAA report on Graduation Success Rates, the football program has an all-time high 81 percent graduation rate for the freshmen and transfer classes 2007 through 2010. Dick Tomey and Mike MacIntyre were the San Jose State football head coaches and current head coach Brent Brennan was an assistant coach during those seasons.
"During Coach Tomey's tenure at San Jose State (2005-09), there was a new emphasis placed on developing, maintaining and enhancing programs for our football student-athletes, specifically, and our student-athlete population as a whole to succeed academically and graduate," says Eileen Daley, San Jose State University's senior associate athletics director for academics and student services.
"We've seen a marked increase in the GSR for our football program in recent years and congratulate the student-athletes, coaching and academic staffs, tutors, counselors and faculty members that are a part of this achievement."
The AFCA's Academic Achievement Award now is in its 20th year. The College Football Association established the Academic Achievement Awards program in 1981. The AFCA took over the program in 1997 when the College Football Association disbanded.
"We're proud to be recognized by the AFCA for our graduation rates by our recent former players. They made the commitment academically and many of them are doing well in their chosen field since graduating with a degree from San Jose State University," says Brennan, who just finished his first season as the Spartans head coach.
Developed by the NCAA, the Graduation Success Rate is based on a six-year graduation window for student-athletes as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes and includes transfer students and midyear enrollees. Institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who depart in good academic standing.
Programs with GSR rates 75 or higher for the 2007 through 2010 years were honored by the AFCA.