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Twenty-three of Notre Dame's athletic programs posted fall 2007 semester GPAs of 3.0 or better, led by the Irish women's tennis team which registered a 3.46 GPA, the program's fourth-highest semester average on record.
Irish Student-Athletes Excelled In Classroom During Fall 2007 Semester

23 of University's athletic programs achieved GPAs of 3.0 or better.

March 19, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Twenty-three of the University of Notre Dame's athletic programs achieved grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher during the fall 2007 semester. Meanwhile, Notre Dame's entire student-athlete population (688 individuals) combined for a 3.196 GPA, marking the ninth consecutive semester Irish athletes have combined for a semester average of 3.145 or higher.

One hundred and seven (107) student-athletes qualified for the Dean's List for the fall '07 semester, the highest figure among the most recent seven semesters at Notre Dame.

Women's tennis posted the best fall '07 combined numbers with a 3.46 GPA, followed by women's golf (3.413), women's cross country (3.402), volleyball (3.35), men's tennis (3.346), women's soccer (3.319) and women's rowing (3.307).

Teams with the highest current cumulative GPAs are women's cross country (3.462), volleyball (3.44), women's tennis (3.375) and hockey (3.353).

The men's swimming squad produced a 3.264 semester GPA for the fall 2007, marking its best in the last 11 semesters (dating back to a 3.286 in the spring 2002 semester).

The men's tennis program achieved a 3.346, for its second-best semester GPA ever (dating back 31 semesters to the start of records in the fall of '92) and its best-ever fall semester numbers.

The women's tennis figure of 3.46 represents that program's fourth-highest semester average among the 31 on record.

The men's basketball squad produced a 3.135 fall GPA - and now has had seven consecutive semesters with cumulative GPAs above 3.0. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida earlier this week released its annual study, "Keeping Score When It Counts: Graduation Rates for 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Teams" - and, if teams advanced based on their GSR (Graduation Success Rate) scores, Notre Dame would make the Final Four. The top men's basketball GSR numbers (among the 65 tournament teams) are by Western Kentucky (100), Butler (92), Notre Dame (91), Purdue (91) and Davidson (91).

That same report listed Notre Dame's women's basketball program as one of 11 in the 2008 NCAA bracket with a perfect 100 GSR figure.

That fall semester excellence in the classroom come after a 2007-08 school year that already has produced an impressive list of other accomplishments:

  • Irish tight end John Carlson last month became the 43rd Notre Dame student-athlete and the 17th football player) to earn an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. Carlson in December received a post-graduate award from the National Football Foundation.
  • STACK magazine in December ranked Notre Dame 13th nationally in its ratings of institutions with the best combination of athletic and academic excellence (among individual sports, Notre Dame women's soccer ranked number one).
  • The NCAA in November listed Notre Dame number one in the country in the GSR statistics for all its student-athletes at 98 (tied with Northwestern and the U.S. Naval Academy). Notre Dame's female student-athlete population ranked first nationally by both the GSR (100) and Federal (94) rates.
  • Notre Dame's football squad now has topped the 3.0 GPA level for an unprecedented five straight semesters. Notre Dame in January received the Academic Achievement Award from the American Football Coaches Association, sharing the honor with Northwestern after both schools graduated 95 percent of its freshman class that began in 2001-02. That marked the seventh time Notre Dame has won the award. The Irish previously won in 1982, 1983, 1984 (tie), 1988, 1991 and 2001 (tie).
  • Notre Dame already has produced five ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans so far in 2007-08, including first-team selection Ashley Jones from women's soccer. Other selections are Carlson (second team in football), Trevor Laws (second team in football), Ryan Miller (second team in men's soccer) and Brittany Bock (third team in women's soccer).

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