The NCAA released graduation rates for athletes earlier today, and once again, Penn State performed exceptionally well.

Penn State football set a program record with a 91 percent graduation success rate, which puts them second in the Big Ten to only Northwestern and 23 percent above the national Division One average. According to spokesman Jeff Nelson, the football team’s 2005-06 entering class earned a program record 93 percent Federal Graduation Rate, which is 33 points above the Division 1 average. To put that in perspective, Penn State’s graduation rate for a non-athlete is 85 percent.

Another astounding statistic — Penn State football’s African American graduation success rate came in at 94 percent, which is 32 percent above the national average. Across the athletic department, the African American graduation rate is 90 percent, which is 24 percent above the national average.

For more information on Penn State’s athletic graduation rate, or to see the statistics from other schools, you can use the NCAA database here. The report takes six years to completely generate, and is applicable to student athletes who enrolled in 2005.

You might remember when Mark Emmert said this of Penn State when he handed down the sanctions, “Our goal is not to be just punitive but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.”

Well then…