Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Make WBCA Academic Honor Roll Yet Again
July 17, 2012 | Women's Basketball
BGSU Earns a Fourth-Straight Top-25 Ranking
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team – having won Mid-American Conference championships in each of the last eight years – obviously had yet another successful season on the court in 2011-12. And, the Falcons had another highly-successful campaign in the classroom as well, having earned national recognition for the fourth consecutive year.
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has announced its 2011-12 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, and BGSU is ranked 24th in the entire nation on the NCAA Division I list. The announcement marks the fourth-straight year that the Falcons are in the top 25. BG was ranked fifth on the 2008-09 list, sixth in '09-10 and 11th on last year's chart.
The WBCA awards recognized teams throughout the country that have the highest grade point averages (GPA) for the 2011-12 season based upon nominations submitted by WBCA-member coaches.
The Falcons had a team GPA of 3.347 for the '11-12 campaign. BGSU is the only Mid-American Conference programs on the list, and the Falcons are one of just two programs from the state of Ohio in the Division-I Top 25. Youngstown State was ranked sixth on the list.
A team's GPA is calculated by dividing the total number of qualify 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 GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Teams are nominated for the honor by a WBCA-member head coach.
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 2011-12 season is the 17th in which the WBCA has produced the honor rolls.
On the hardwood, BGSU won the MAC's regular-season championship, marking the eighth consecutive season that the Falcons had won a conference regular-season crown of some sort. The Brown and Orange posted a 14-2 league mark and went 24-7 overall. BG advanced to the WNIT, the Falcons' eighth-straight season with a national postseason appearance.
BGSU made the list for the fifth time in the last six seasons. In addition to each of the last four years, the Falcons also made the WBCA Top 25 Team Honor Roll in 2006-07 (23rd, 3.300 GPA).
The 2012 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division I is as follows:
|
Rank |
Institution |
2011-12 Head Coach |
Team GPA |
|
1 |
Green Bay |
Matt Bollant* |
3.616 |
|
2 |
South Dakota State |
Aaron Johnston |
3.610 |
|
3 |
DePaul |
Douglas Bruno |
3.604 |
|
4 |
South Dakota |
Ryun Williams* |
3.595 |
|
5 |
American |
Matt Corkery |
3.563 |
|
6 |
Youngstown State |
Robert Boldon |
3.550 |
|
7 |
Utah Valley |
Cathy Nixon |
3.524 |
|
8 |
North Dakota |
Gene Roebuck* |
3.505 |
|
9 |
Florida Gulf Coast |
Karl Smesko |
3.474 |
|
10 |
St. Francis (N.Y.) |
John Thurston |
3.456 |
|
11 |
Montana State |
Tricia Binford |
3.435 |
|
12 |
Northern Colorado |
Jaime White |
3.421 |
|
13 |
Western Carolina |
Karen Middleton |
3.406 |
|
14 (tie) |
New Mexico |
Yvonne Sanchez |
3.403 |
|
14 (tie) |
Northern Iowa |
Tanya Warren |
3.403 |
|
16 |
North Dakota State |
Carolyn DeHoff |
3.402 |
|
17 |
Montana |
Robin Selvig |
3.399 |
|
18 |
IPFW |
Chris Paul |
3.398 |
|
19 |
Bradley |
Paula Buscher* |
3.396 |
|
20 |
Denver |
Erik Johnson* |
3.387 |
|
21 |
Bucknell |
Kathy Fedorjaka* |
3.382 |
|
22 |
Yale |
Chris Gobrecht |
3.352 |
|
23 |
Sacred Heart |
Edward Swanson |
3.349 |
|
24 |
Bowling Green |
Curt Miller* |
3.347 |
|
25 |
Eastern Washington |
Wendy Schuller |
3.337 |
* left after season
