Student athlete 4.0: Comparing UVU student athletes with others in Utah

Part two of two of a series comparing UVU student athletes grades with those from other universities in Utah.

Tim Castaneda | Sports Writer | @xTIMBOxSLICEx

While UVU certainly has reached the point where it competes in a variety of sports with other top universities in Utah, there is now another area where it competes –  the classroom. In comparison with BYU, Dixie State, Utah, Utah State and Weber State, UVU student athletes stack up pretty well when it comes to GPA.

In the 2014 fall semester at UVU, 23 student athletes achieved a 4.0 grade point average to earn Wolverine Academic Excellence certificates of achievement. 150 of UVU student-athletes earned a 3.5 GPA or higher and all student athletes combined for a 3.34 GPA.

UVU posted more student athletes with a 4.0 GPA for the 2014 fall semester than a couple of other schools in Utah. For instance, only 5 of 61 athletes from Utah State’s fall All-Mountain West selections achieved a 4.0 GPA. In the same year, one BYU athlete to make the West Coast Conference’s commissioner honor roll earned a 4.0.

The exception to this list was Dixie State, which had 24 of its athletes achieve a 4.0 GPA.

Out of UVU’s 150 athletes, 45 percent of all of them reached a 3.5 GPA or higher. This also fares well when compared to other schools’ student athletes. From the BYU student athletes named to the WCC commissioner’s honor roll, just 17 scored higher than a 3.5. Utah had 128 student athletes achieve a 3.5 GPA a higher, which is about a third of their student athlete population. At Dixie, 66 student athletes earned higher than a 3.5 in the fall 2014 semester.

UVU athletes overall average 3.34 cumulative GPA is higher than some of Utah’s other schools. Utah teams combined for a 3.129 GPA last spring, about two-tenths lower than UVU’s.  Dixie’s athletic teams combined for a 3.103 in the fall 2014 semester, which is also lower than the Wolverines’ GPA.

UVU also had a higher percentage of its student athletes get a 3.0 or above than BYU, Utah, and Utah State. Although the school tied with Utah, with262 student athletes reaching the mark, that number covers 79 percent of the Wolverine student-athletes, whereas the number only accounts for 60 percent of Ute student-athletes. It is still a larger number than the number of BYU athletes to receive a 3.0 or greater, which was 83 for the Cougars in 2014.

The UVU men’s track and field team versus the Weber State men’s track and field team had a higher team GPA (at 3.4) last fall, in comparison to the Wildcats who posted a 3.17 for the Spring 2014 semester.

As is shown in the statistics, the student athletes attending UVU can hang with a few of the other top sports programs in the state in the world of academics. Although some numbers shown from other schools sports teams come from different times within the year, they provide enough of an illustration that shows UVU athletes top other student-athletes from well-recognized athletic programs in getting high GPAs.