Hokies Doing Well in GSR Calculations

The NCAA released the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data on Wednesday,
and the Hokies are doing well in most of the major sports in comparison to the
rest of the ACC. Much-maligned in football for years in the old standard of
Federal Graduation Rates, the Hokies are now above the national average in the
GSR data, which has been the measuring stick for several years now.

The following tables were calculated by determining the percentage of players
who enrolled in the years 1997-2000. Schools are not penalized for players who
transferred in good academic standing, and that is the difference between the
GSR and the old Federal Rates.

As expected, teams like Boston College, Duke and Wake Forest are at the top.
Virginia Tech’s 72% rate is above the national rate of 67%, and it ranks sixth
in the ACC. The only schools in the ACC that are not above the national average
are NC State, Florida state and Georgia Tech.

Virginia Tech’s Federal Rate for football was 66%, so not counting transfers
in good academic standing obviously makes a difference.

Here’s a look at men’s basketball.

Florida State and Wake Forest managed an impressive 100% graduation rate in
men’s basketball. That’s very impressive. The Demon Deacons graduated 90% of
their football players and all of their men’s basketball players. That makes
then easily the most impressive school in the conference, from a GSR standpoint.

Virginia Tech’s rate of 67% is tied for sixth in the conference with Duke.
However, Tech’s Federal Rate in men’s basketball is just 17%, and that’s because
of transfers. The Hokies signed 17 players between 1997 and 2000, and only six
of those players finished their careers at Virginia Tech. From 1997 through
1999, Tech signed ten players, and the only player from that group to stay in
Blacksburg all four years was Brian Chase.

Now let’s break down all the teams at Virginia Tech. First, the men’s teams.

The men’s soccer team has a perfect 100% score, and cross country/track and golf
are also above 80%. The only sports that are below 70% are basketball, wrestling
and baseball, with the baseball team bringing up the rear.

The women’s teams post higher graduation rates than the men’s teams at
Virginia Tech, which is on course with the national trend.

Four women’s sports at Virginia Tech can boast a 100% graduation rate. Three
others are at 91% or higher, and the lowest is the women’s basketball team at
82%. Those are some very impressive numbers.

As academic support continues to improve at Virginia Tech, these numbers
should continue to climb.

Ike Whitaker Not Traveling to Clemson

Virginia Tech r-sophomore wide receiver Ike Whitaker will not travel with the
team to Clemson this weekend. Rumors were swirling around the message boards at
the beginning of the week that Whitaker was set to transfer, but according to an
official release from Virginia Tech, that is not the case at this time.

Whitaker missed practice on Monday after a meeting with Beamer. After
Whitaker missed practice again on Tuesday, the two met again on Wednesday, and
Beamer instructed him to take the rest of the week off.

In the press release, Beamer made the following comment: "Ike was unsure
about his situation and we are going to meet again Monday to discuss his
future".

The Washington Post was able to get in touch with Whitaker, who made it sound
as if there isn’t much of a problem.

"I’ll be back with the team Monday," Whitaker told Adam Kilgore of
The Washington post. "It’s nothing serious."

Whitaker was asked by the Post if it was football related or off-field
issues. He responded: "It’s kind of both. It’s really not serious at all. I
just had to handle some stuff."

We should know more about Whitaker’s situation on Monday after his meeting
with Beamer.