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Despite a turbulent conclusion to the 2019-20 academic year due to COVID-19 public health concerns, University of Minnesota student-athletes continued to excel at historic levels in the classroom, according to information released today by the John & Nancy Lindahl Academic Center.

Minnesota student- athletes combined to average a school-record 3.65 term GPA for the recent spring semester, besting the previous record of 3.33 set last semester in the fall of 2019. Additionally, all of Minnesota’s 23 sponsored programs carried a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or better.

In addition, the cumulative GPA for all Minnesota student-athletes following the end of the 2019-20 academic year is a school-record 3.36. This is the fifth-straight semester that the cumulative GPA has increased and every program is above a 3.25 for the first time ever.

“The hard work and dedication of our student-athletes has never been more prominent than this semester,” said Lindahl Academic Center Director JT Bruett.
“In addition to many of them having their athletic endeavors put on hold or even ended prematurely, all of them were forced to transition to distance learning during the pandemic, and I commend all of our student-athletes for their patience and commitment over the last few months.”

“I would also like to recognize the efforts of our campus partners, athletic administration, coaches and Lindahl Academic Center staff for their roles in ensuring the academic success of our student-athletes during this time and continuing the strong culture of academic commitment that has been built here at the University of Minnesota.”

Academic Notes: Due to the distance learning adjustment this semester, students on the Twin Cities campus had the opportunity to change their grading basis once they received their final grade for a course. Many University of Minnesota students took this opportunity to change their grading basis for courses to a satisfactory/non-satisfactory grading basis, which does not impact their GPA…The Big Ten recognized a total of 375 University of Minnesota student-athletes with Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2019-20 year…A total of 23 Gopher student-athletes have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District for the 2019-20 year – the figure is tied for the second most honorees in school history. Three of those student-athletes (softball’s Amber Fiser and football’s Sam Renner and Blaise Andries) have gone on to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades while 14 others are still eligible for the award.