Indianapolis, Ind. - 2024 marks five straight years that the Adelphi University athletic department has been named a recipient of the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence, given to schools that achieve an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. 

Sitting at 91 percent, the Panthers are one of seven schools from the Northeast-10 Conference to be in the division-leading count, with the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and the Sunshine State Conference accounting for five programs each. 

Hillsdale was the top performer, earning a nearly perfect ASR, followed by Bentley with 98 percent. Saint Michael's and Thomas Jefferson University had an ASR of 97 percent, and Rollins rounded out the top five with an ASR of 96 percent. 

"It takes a village to support student-athletes and create the balanced environment for them to thrive academically and athletically," said Jason Jones, associate athletics director for compliance at Catawba and chair of the Division II Academic Requirements Committee. "This prestigious honor recognizes 43 schools that have achieved academic excellence, and I'm thrilled to congratulate them."

The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes those who transferred out of the school while academically eligible. The ASR also includes over 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes in the division who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.

Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rate, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 6 percentage points. For Division II student-athletes, the federal rate is 59%, while the general student body federal rate is 53%.