CLEVELAND, Ohio – Western Michigan University's men’s athletics program has been named the winner of the 2023-24 Mid-American Conference Men’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Award. This marks the tenth time the Broncos have earned the honor.
 
The FAR Awards are designed to recognize the Conference institution with the highest overall combination of both grade point average (GPA) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) rank by gender.  The GPA’s were based upon the 2023-24 academic year.
 
The Conference FAR’s worked with the Athletic Academic Advisors to compute an award that best represents the academic achievement of student-athletes in a competitive setting.  The FAR Awards are given to those institutions’ male and female programs with the highest overall combination of GPA and APR within the Conference.  Only MAC sponsored sports are used.
 
“We are proud of the tremendous work of our student-athletes, coaches and academic support team in positioning us for this type of excellence,” said Western Michigan Vice President / Director of Athletics Dan Bartholomae. “Particularly in today’s intercollegiate athletics landscape, to be recognized for retaining and graduating our athletes in these sports at the highest academic standing is a testament to their efforts.”
 
Three WMU men’s athletic programs posted the highest GPA during the 2023-24 season -- Baseball at 3.609, Men’s Basketball at 3.388 and Men’s Tennis at 3.844. WMU’s men’s programs brought home APR rates of 1000 for the following programs: Baseball, Men’s Basketball and Men’s Tennis.