Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Make WBCA Academic Honor Roll
July 24, 2014 | Women's Basketball
BGSU earns a top-25 ranking for the fifth time in the last six years
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team had yet another successful season on the court in 2013-14. And, the Falcons had another highly-successful campaign in the classroom as well, having earned national recognition for the fifth time in the last six years.The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has announced its 2013-14 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, and BGSU is ranked 25th in the entire nation on the NCAA Division I list. The Falcons are the only Mid-American Conference team, as well as the only Division-I program from the state of Ohio, to make the list.
Thursday's announcement marks the fifth time in six years that the Falcons are in the top 25. BG was ranked fifth on the 2008-09 list, sixth in '09-10, 11th in '10-11 and 24th two seasons ago.
The WBCA awards recognized teams throughout the country that have the highest grade-point averages (GPA) for the 2013-14 season based upon nominations submitted by WBCA-member coaches.
The Falcons had a team GPA of 3.384 for the '13-14 campaign. A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by the total number of hours attempted by all team members in the academic terms (semesters or quarters) that the season spans. Weighted grades are converted to a 4.0 scale. The GPA's are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach. A team must have a 3.000 or better GPA to be nominated.
"Being a student-athlete is a challenging feat, but at the same time it is also very rewarding and to see the GPA's that these institutions have collected is impressive," said WBCA COO Shannon Reynolds. "The WBCA congratulates all of these student-athletes and their coaches for their hard work and dedication."
The WBCA Academic Top 25 annually recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; and junior/community college women's basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined GPAs inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2013-14 season is the 19th in which the WBCA has produced the honor rolls.
On the hardwood, BGSU won the MAC's regular-season championship, marking the ninth time in the last 10 years that the Falcons have won a conference regular-season crown of some sort. The Brown and Orange posted a 17-1 league mark and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the WNIT. BG made a national postseason appearance for the MAC-record 10th consecutive March, and the Falcons won 30 overall games last year, the second-highest total in school -- and conference -- history..
BGSU made the WBCA's list for the sixth time in the last eight seasons. In addition to the aforementioned years, the Falcons also made the WBCA Top 25 Team Honor Roll in 2006-07 (23rd).
The 2014 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division I is as follows...
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| Rank | Institution | 2013-14 Head Coach | Team GPA |
1 | University of Missouri-Kansas City | Marsha Frese | 3.628 |
2 | Eastern Washington University | Wendy Schuller | 3.615 |
3 | University of Northern Colorado | Jaime White | 3.614 |
4 | St. Francis College (NY) | John Thurston | 3.608 |
5 | Western Illinois University | JD Gravina | 3.607 |
6 | Drake University | Jennie Baranczyk | 3.571 |
7 | University of Northern Iowa | Tanya Warren | 3.565 |
8 | DePaul University** | Douglas Bruno | 3.559 |
9 | Illinois State University | Barb Smith | 3.549 |
10 | Utah Valley University | Cathy Nixon | 3.543 |
11 | Florida Gulf Coast University** | Karl Smesko | 3.521 |
12 | Houston Baptist University | Donna Finnie | 3.514 |
13 | American University | Megan Gebbia | 3.510 |
14 | University of Denver | Kerry Cremeans | 3.498 |
15 | Northern Kentucky University | Dawn Plitzuweit | 3.484 |
16 | Austin Peay State University | Carrie Daniels | 3.465 |
17 | Lehigh University | Susan Troyan | 3.451 |
18 | Belmont University | Cameron Newbauer | 3.433 |
19 | South Dakota State University | Aaron Johnston | 3.421 |
20 | Cornell University | Dayna Smith | 3.420 |
21 | Arizona State University** | Charli Turner Thorne | 3.412 |
22 | Colorado State University | Ryun Williams | 3.399 |
23 | Yale University | Chris Gobrecht | 3.397 |
24 | Brown University | Jean Marie Burr | 3.394 |
25 | Bowling Green State University | 3.384 |
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