If I told you that better than half of all student-athletes at THE Ohio State University wound up on the school’s honor roll, I am sure you would ask me what exactly those honor roll standards are.
As a whole, the entire student-athletic body achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.07 at years end after a 3.04 at spring quarter’s end.
There are 950 plus students at tOSU and 548 of them landed on the Ohio State Scholar Athlete Honor Roll. 51 of the 548 achieved a 4.0 GPA during the spring quarter and 25 athletic teams had a GPA of 3.0 or greater during the same period.
The standards are very simple, achieve a cumulative individual GPA of 3.0 while competing at the highest level of collegiate sports.
“Ohio State’s student-athletes continue to meet and exceed a wide range of academic benchmarks necessary to remain eligible to compete athletically,” Professor John P. Bruno, the University’s Faculty Athletics Representative, said. “Their success, exemplified in graduation rates (our primary goal), the high percentage of scholar-athletes and a hoard of individual academic awards at the conference and national levels is a tribute to the student-athletes, their coaches and our terrific student-athlete academic support services (SASSO).”
With such an outstanding classroom performance from the student-athletes this past year, there is no competition at the B1G conference level. Ohio State is setting a new standard in the conference academically in a variety of ways. They led the conference with 312 Academic All-Big Ten selections, with 66 in fall, 59 in winter and 187 for spring and at-large sports. These numbers made Ohio State the only program with more than 300 honorees for the year. To be named to the league’s academic team, student-athletes must be a letter winner in at least their second year on campus and have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
A total of 58 of these student-athletes wound up on the B1G Distinguished Scholar list for posting a GPA of 3.7 or higher. This distinguished list included basketball’s Aaron Craft who was the only basketball player on the list from the entire conference. He also joined seven others on the CoSIDA Academic All-District list for the year. Aaron Craft, Andrew Elliot (swimming), Alicia Herron (softball), Sean Duddy (hockey) and Ulrike Denker (rowing) earned honors on the CoSIDA Academic All-America list. Craft was the first basketball player since Bill Hosket in 1968 to achieve the feat. Elliot was first team on the At-Large list which includes 25 men’s and women’s sports that do not have their own lists. Herron was first team in softball and Duddy and Denker achieved second team on the at-large list.
What makes all of these accomplishments more incredible is that the majority of the honorees are committed to a full time practice regiment in the sport that they are involved in in addition to their full class load. I myself have never been a student-athlete, but I do have two children that are doing it on a D-2 level and I know how difficult it can be on them at times. Most regular students can have a difficult time keeping up with the normal routine of adjusting to college life, let alone with the added responsibilities of a practice schedule thrown in. It takes a special human being to be a student-athlete, and Ohio State boasts plenty of them.
Take this number and keep it with you the next time you look at the programs at THE Ohio State University: 312 of 950 student-athletes that represent the university we all love and support are setting a standard within the B1G conference that may go unmatched. It’s best to give credit where credit is due, which directs one’s attention to the 187 spring sport athletes who made the cut. The men’s track and field squad was first among the Ohio State spring and at-large sports with 19 honorees, followed by men’s lacrosse and women’s rowing with 18 each. The women’s track and field program, coming off a second-consecutive Big Ten outdoor championship, and the fencing program tied for fourth with 17 selections each.
That’s an amazing accomplishment and goes a long way towards helping a university excel in academics, which helps them achieve in athletics.
Ohio State Professor John P. Bruno, Ohio State faculty athletics representative recently had the following to say about the APR and Ohio State.
“Each of Ohio State’s 36 teams continued to improve its Academic Performance Rates (i.e. APR score) over the most recent four-year average (2010-11). This indicates our student-athletes are successfully completing the academic benchmarks associated with eligibility to compete,” Bruno said. “Moreover, five of our teams have distinguished themselves as being recently recognized by the NCAA as having APR scores in the Top 10 percent of their sports on a national level. The sports are football (within the FBS cohort), men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s volleyball. This strong performance speaks to the commitment of our student-athletes to their academic progress and to the support they receive from coaches and our terrific academic support staff.”
As a parent who considers more than what a school can offer my child as an athlete, this statement makes a perfect case for why they should attend THE Ohio State University. Here is a listing of how each prgram did on the field for the year. 2011-2012 year in review. Student-Athletes at OSU are the standard.
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