Bowling Green Wins MAC Women’s FAR Award For Third-Straight Year

CLEVELAND, Ohio - For the third consecutive year, and the fifth time in the last six years, Bowling Green State University has been named the winner of the 2025-26 Mid-American Conference Women's Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Award, the conference office announced on Monday (Aug. 24).

The FAR Awards are designed to recognize the MAC institution with the highest overall combination of both grade point average (GPA) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) rank by gender. The Conference FAR's worked with the Athletic Academic Advisors to compute an award that best represents the academic achievement of student-athletes in a competitive setting. The FAR Awards are given to those institutions male and female programs with the highest overall combination of GPA and APR within the Conference. Only MAC sponsored sports are used and the GPA is based upon the 2025-26 academic year.

This marks the 13th time in program history that the Falcons have won this prestigious annual award. Bowling Green's 13 recognitions on the women's side lead the conference by a substantial margin. Since the inception of the award in 2007-08, no other team has won the award more than three times with BGSU claiming the recognition 13 of the 19 times it has been awarded.

"The Falcon community is so proud of the success of our female student-athletes who have earned this prestigious award for a 13th time and for the third straight year," said BGSU Director of Athletics Derek van der Merwe. "Our student-athletes have won this award more than any other school in the history of the conference. This is a great testament to our Falcon Commitment, to the quality of student-athletes we recruit, and also to the level of commitment our coaches and staff have to academics."

Bowling Green's women's athletic programs posted a combined 3.73 GPA over the course of the season. Women's cross country led the way (3.857 GPA) while posting the highest GPA in the nation according to USTFCCCA. Women's golf followed closely behind (3.848) with the ninth highest GPA in the country. Among the women's teams, each program posted a cumulative GPA of 3.53 or higher.

As for the Academic Progress Rate Report, BGSU's women's teams contributed to a 996 department APR, the highest in the MAC. Nine women's teams posted a perfect 1000 single-year APR, including women's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, gymnastics, women's soccer, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball. Of those nine, women's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, gymnastics, women's soccer and volleyball posted multiyear 1000 APR scores.

Women's Faculty Athletics Representative Academic Achievement Award

2025-26 Bowling Green State University

2024-25 Bowling Green State University

2023-24 Bowling Green State University

2022-23 Western Michigan University

2021-22 Bowling Green State University

2020-21 Bowling Green State University

2019-20 Kent State University

2018-19 Bowling Green State University

2017-18 University of Toledo

2016-17 Bowling Green State University

2015-16 Bowling Green State University

2014-15 Bowling Green State University

2013-14 Bowling Green State University

2012-13 Central Michigan University

2011-12 Bowling Green State University

2010-11 Central Michigan University

2009-10 Bowling Green State University

2008-09 Bowling Green State University

2007-08 Central Michigan University

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