INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence is awarded to Division II schools that have achieved an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. For the second consecutive year, 44 member schools have earned this honor. 
 
D'Youville stood towards the top of the 44 member schools in Division II, earning an Academic Success Rate of 98% which was tied for third in the country. The East Coast Conference was also towards the top of all Division II Conferences, having an ASR of 85% which is also tied for third.
 
The NCAA annually releases the Division II ASR, a model developed 19 years ago at the request of presidents of Division II institutions to overcome inadequacies with the Federal Graduation Rate (FGR). The FGR only takes into account student-athletes that receive athletically related aid, leaving large numbers of DII student-athletes out of the calculation. Because of Division II's partial scholarship financial aid model, the ASR was created to include non-scholarship student-athletes who enrolled from 2013 through 2016, the four years covered in the most recent data.

Overall, ECC member institutions produced a total of 1,691 graduates among 1,994 student-athletes who enrolled during the four-year period of 2013-16.