Student athlete 4.0: How student athletes compare to other UVU students in the classroom

Part one of a two part series: Comparing student athletes’ grades with the overall student population at UVU

Tim Castaneda | Sports Writer | @xTIMBOxSLICEx

Photo Credit: Brooke Morrill, Photo Director, @brookemorrill

Info Graphic Credit: Kenzie Jones, Sports Editor, @KenzieScribbler

Each semester, students are tasked with the responsibility to figure out how to best manage their time in order to receive the best possible grades. Many deal with filling their time with things such as part-time or full-time work, extracurricular clubs, religious activity, and having a social life, to name a few.

Student athletes participating in NCAA Division I sports deal with all of that, and then some. In addition to the aforementioned time fillers, they regularly have to set apart time to physically train, practice individually or with their team, and still meet the grades required to maintain eligibility to participate in their sport.

The least amount of work these student athletes have to accomplish each week equates to an average of 20 hours a week in work outs, 10 hours a week in study hall, 15 hours a week in school, and that doesn’t include jobs, game time, or travel time. Not to mention that they also have to maintain at least a 2.5 GPA just to stay in the program.

At Utah Valley University, the student athletes now prove that less may actually mean more when it comes to time management and good grades, like Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel, who recently published an algorithm in an acclaimed mathematics academic journal, Wolverine athletes show that they, too, have the brains to go along with athletic ability.

Take a look at some numbers.

As a whole, UVU student athletes had an average of a cumulative 3.34 grade point for the fall 2014 semester. After the same semester, 36 UVU student-athletes received All-WAC academic honors for their work in the classroom.

Among those 150, or 45 percent of, student athletes from UVU’s 16 NCAA Division I rosters recorded a 3.5 GPA or better during the same semester.  Included in that group are the 23 student-athletes who earned Wolverine Academic Excellence recognition for their 4.0 GPAs in the fall.

“All of our student athletes are continually doing things the Wolverine Way and we couldn’t be more proud of them,” said UVU Director of Athletics, Vince Otoupal. “To have 23 student athletes achieve a 4.0 in the fall is outstanding. Our student-athletes don’t just succeed athletically but also academically and this is something that we really pride ourselves in here at UVU.”

To put things in perspective, the average GPAs of general students (based on statistics from the spring 2014 semester provided by the UVU Institutional Research Information department website) was lower.

UVU shows it is committed to having student-athletes do just as well in the classroom as they do on the court or field.

The academic success of the student-athlete at UVU provides more reason for all to celebrate the school for its sports programs high performance shown in and out of athletic competition. With finals straight ahead, as students who may think they have too little time to achieve academic success, remember that less can be more.