CLEVELAND, Ohio – Bowling Green State University's women’s athletics program has been named the winner of the 2025-26 Mid-American Conference Women’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Award.
 
This marks the 13th time in program history that the Falcons have earned the prestigious annual award. The FAR Awards are designed to recognize the Conference institutions with the highest overall combination of grade point average (GPA) and Academic Progress Rate (APR) rank by gender. The GPA component is based on academic performance during the 2025-26 academic year.
 
The Conference’s Faculty Athletics Representatives worked with athletic academic advisors to develop an award that best represents the academic achievement of student-athletes in a competitive setting. The FAR Awards are presented to the institutions whose men’s and women’s programs achieve the highest overall combination of GPA and APR within the Conference. Only MAC-sponsored sports are included in the calculation.
 
"The Falcon community is so proud of the success of our female student-athletes who have earned this prestigious award for a 13th time and for the third straight year," said BGSU Director of Athletics Derek van der Merwe. "Our student-athletes have won this award more than any other school in the history of the conference. This is a great testament to our Falcon Commitment, to the quality of student-athletes we recruit, and also to the level of commitment our coaches and staff have to academics.”
 
Bowling Green’s women’s athletics programs led the MAC in GPA in three sports during the 2025-26 academic year: women’s cross country (3.857), women’s swimming & diving (3.774) and women’s track & field (3.658). The Falcons also recorded a perfect 1000 APR in nine sports: women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis, women’s track & field and volleyball.