Originally published Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Graduation rates good for UW, WSU football squads

The football teams at Washington and Washington State each fared well in updated graduation rates released Tuesday by the NCAA. The Cougars ranked second...

By Bob Condotta

Seattle Times staff reporter

The football teams at Washington and Washington State each fared well in updated graduation rates released Tuesday by the NCAA.

The Cougars ranked second in the Pac-10 in the NCAA's Graduation Success Rate, graduating 68 percent of players who enrolled in a four-year period from 1998 to 2001. Washington was third at 65 percent. Stanford was first at 93 percent.

Washington State was also second in the Federal Rate, which, unlike the GSR, doesn't take into account transfers who leave in good academic standing. WSU was at 65 percent in the Federal Rate, while UW was at 56 percent.

The schools didn't post numbers quite as impressive in men's basketball, rates that tend to be more erratic because there are fewer players in each class, sometimes just three or four, and percentages can get skewed easily with just one or two transfers or players leaving early for the NBA.

Washington was at 50 percent, and fourth in the Pac-10, in the GSR for men's basketball, while WSU was at 33 percent and eighth. For UW, those numbers reflect the last four classes of the Bob Bender era, and for WSU, they reflect classes recruited during the tenures of Kevin Eastman and Paul Graham.

Washington posted a 100 percent GSR in eight sports — men's swimming and tennis and women's basketball, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.

New Huskies athletic director Scott Woodward said the numbers reflect the school's commitment to academic success for its athletes.

"There has never been any question that the overall academic progress of UW student-athletes has been nothing less than exemplary," Woodward said. "We are proud of the academic success our student-athletes have achieved and we will continue to stress the importance of graduation from the moment we begin recruiting a high-school student through the end of their athletic and academic careers."

WSU posted perfect marks in men's golf and women's swimming.

The rates released Tuesday are not to be confused with the NCAA's new Academic Performance Rate system in which schools can be penalized for lack of academic success. Those numbers are released in the spring.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com

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