In addition to capturing four total conference championships, Northwestern State’s student-athletes delivered in the classroom as well during the 2024-25 academic year.
Northwestern’s 12 athletic programs combined for a 986 overall score in the NCAA’s annual Academic Progress Rate calculation, the program’s second-best score since the metric was devised in 2003.
The APR provides a real-time look at a program’s academic success each semester by tracking the progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility and retention and provides a measure of each Division I team’s performance compared to its peers.
Overall, seven Northwestern programs notched perfect 1,000 scores in the metric -– more than double the number from the 2023-24 report. That cumulative success led to the 986 overall mark, which qualified Northwestern to receive the NCAA Academic Unit -– a financial incentive awarded to departments who post a score of 985 or greater.
It marks the first time since the 2022-23 report for Northwestern to qualify for the academic unit, which was first awarded in spring 2020.
“The performance of our student-athletes in their fields of competition and within the classroom emphasizes the dual nature of their titles,” Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “Excellence in both competition and academics are core values of our athletic program, and this year’s APR report stamps our student-athletes as having achieved success in both realms. Having seven programs land perfect APR marks in the current state of college athletics is a remarkable achievement that reflects on both the hard work of our student-athletes balancing all of their myriad responsibilities and the impact of our student-athlete development staff, who have helped foster a culture of responsibility and success away from competition.”
The seven programs that collected perfect scores were baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country, softball, soccer, tennis and volleyball. The women’s track and field program posted its second straight 990 mark – an improvement of 19 points over its score from two years ago.
Both men’s cross country and tennis have posted multi-year rates of 1,000 after this report. Multi-year rates cover team scores across a four-year period.
In addition to those programs, five programs have produced multi-year rates of 975 or above: volleyball (989), soccer (985), baseball (977), softball (975) and women’s track and field (975).