Gopher athletes continue to excel in the classroom

University of Minnesota Twin Cities student-athletes once again had a tremendous showing in the classroom for the 2024-25 academic year.

When looking at honorees from the College Sports Communicators, which oversees Academic All-American and All-District accolades, few schools can match the success of the Golden Gophers. Excluding sports that Minnesota doesn't sponsor, the Gophers had 62 All-District honorees—to lead the nation. In addition, eight of those athletes went on to receive Academic All-America recognition, a number that tied for fourth most in the Big Ten and tied for eighth nationally.

The NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) also showcases the strong performance for the maroon and gold in the classroom. Six Gopher programs earned a perfect 1,000 multi-year rate (which collects data from four academic years). Those programs were men's basketball, men's cross country, men's golf, gymnastics, women's hockey, and volleyball. 

The Gophers also had 14 of their 21 programs earn a perfect APR score in the most recent reporting year of 2023-24: baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's cross country, men's and women's golf, gymnastics, men's and women's hockey, rowing, soccer, men's swimming and diving, tennis ,and volleyball.

Another NCAA metric, the Graduation Success Rate (GSR), further illustrates the academic commitment for Minnesota. With a 95 percent graduation rate for a second straight academic year, Minnesota has now recorded the seven highest GSR marks in school history over the last seven years—with a school-record 96 percent mark in 2021; 94 percent in 2022, 2020, and 2019; and a 93 percent rate in 2018. Within the Big Ten, the Gophers' rate of 95 percent ranked third behind only Northwestern (98 percent) and Michigan (96).

And at the conference level, 379 Gopher student-athletes received Academic All-Big Ten honors, while 140 were also recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars.

Gopher student-athletes posted a 3.45 GPA for spring semester 2025. That marked the sixth consecutive semester that all sport programs were above a 3.0 GPA in both their semester and cumulative GPAs. Through the spring semester, the Gophers had a cumulative GPA of 3.46, a school record.