WACO, Texas - With an overall score of 89, Baylor led the Big 12 Conference in Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for the fourth-straight year and the eighth time overall according to data released by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Wednesday.

Baylor ranked ahead of Texas (87), TCU (85), Iowa State (84), Kansas State (84), Kansas (83), Oklahoma (83), Texas Tech (82), West Virginia (80) and Oklahoma State (70). BU, which has finished first or second among Big 12 schools in composite GSR nine times in the last 11 years, also paced the Big 12 in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Four of Baylor's sport programs earned a perfect GSR score of 100, including men's golf, women's golf, soccer and women's tennis. Football (82), men's track and field (89), men's golf (100), women's golf (100), soccer (100) and women's tennis (100) boasted the top scores in the Big 12 in their respective sports.

The GSR was developed to more accurately assess the academic performance of student-athletes. The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport. Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution's GSR cohort. The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2007-2010. The NCAA began compiling these figures with the entering freshmen class of 1995.

Up from last year's 61 percent, Baylor also improved its federal graduation rate to 66 percent for all student-athletes in the most recent study to tie for second among Big 12 institutions behind TCU (69) and Texas (69). Baylor has finished either first or second in the federal graduation rate report 11 times in the league's 22-year history, produced the league's top mark in 2015, 2012, 2004, 2001, 2000, 1998 and 1996, and has graduated at least 60 percent of its student-athletes 18 times.

For more information and to view full reports, visit www.ncaa.org.