Student-Athletes Make the Grade

Practice and preparation paid off in the classroom as well as on the field or the court last season as student-athletes set an Athletic Department record for grade point average and earned the Missouri Valley Conference’s All-Academic Award for the third consecutive year.

The annual MVC award designates the conference school with the best GPA among its student-athletes. Bradley’s 3.43 GPA for 2017–18 topped MVC schools and set an Athletic Department mark.

There also were a school-record 46 MVC Scholar-Athletes in 15 sports during 2017–18, again leading the conference. Scholar-athletes must be starters or important reserves on their teams playing in at least 75 percent of their contests, have at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4-point scale, completed one academic year at the school and have sophomore standing athletically and academically. Seventy-seven percent of Bradley athletes (172 of 224) qualified for the MVC Honor Roll with a minimum 3.20 GPA for at least one semester of 2017–18.

Information collected for the NCAA is expected to show Bradley in the 99th percentile of all Division I institutions for GPA. The NCAA recognized a school-record seven teams — men’s and women’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s track, soccer and tennis — for ranking among the top 10 percent nationally for overall team academic performance during a four-year period ending in 2016–17.

Additionally, the men’s track program was fifth nationally for GPA and the women 28th, according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and the baseball team was among 46 Division I programs honored by the American Baseball Coaches Association for academic performance.