Florida State University Athletics
Beach Volleyball Smashes GPA Record
1/13/2025 3:32:00 PM | Women's Beach Volleyball
TALLAHASSEE, Florida – The Florida State beach volleyball team is smart. In fact, the smartest in the program's 13-year history.
This past fall, the Seminoles set a new record for the team grade point average, finishing with a 3.7. It's a full .2 percentage points highexr than the previous record of 3.5 – roughly the equivalent of sweeping an opponent, 21-15, 21-15 in the sand. It's a number, among many this fall, that blew away Assistant Dean and Associate Athletics Director Miguel Negron
"Each time we were getting a little bit higher," said Negron, who is in his fourth year with Florida State, "But I had a feeling when I was looking at our girls' grades – we have a big roster, so a 3.7 moves the needle a lot for the department."
How big of a jump is .2 percentage points? Look at it this way: It's notable – and is noted with enthusiasm – when a team jumps hundredths of a point in GPA. But two tenths?
Indeed, consider the needle moved.
"Elite," is a word Negron used frequently when describing the 23 women on the beach volleyball roster. But it wasn't just the beach volleyball team.
While they were a highlight academically, to be sure, they were not some random aberration of academic brilliance, but the norm. Across the board, Florida State athletics shined in the classroom, with every single program turning in a GPA above a 3.0, something that has never been done in school history.
All in all, it led to a department-wide average of a 3.3 GPA.
"We've never sniffed a 3.3," Negron said, laughing. "Our previous record was a 3.21. That's a massive jump when you're talking that many student-athletes and GPAs. That's a huge jump. We hadn't gotten a 3.2 until the Fall of 2022, then in the Spring we got a 3.21, then the following fall we got a 3.22, so each time we were getting a little bit higher. When I was looking at other sports, their issues and concerns lists, the lists were smaller. When football's was three pages, I was like 'This semester could be really good.' Football got a 3.0. Every program got a 3.0 for the first time in school history."
Coaches are measured by wins and losses, championships and titles. Negron and the academic department? Their equivalents of the Super Bowl, World Series or the Olympics are the collective GPA, graduation rate and academic progress rate (APR).
"That's our season," he said. "We have a fall season and we have a spring season."
And, with a major assist from the beach volleyball team, Negron brought home his version of an NCAA Championship. Not that he'd take credit for any of it. Sure, he oversees the student-athletes' schedules, holds them accountable when they miss assignments, prods them if they miss class, checks in on them as they're studying in the academics building, but any credit to him and his staff was quickly shrugged off.
"We have amazing coaches," he said, deflecting the praise. "They're recruiting really, really strong student-athletes, so it makes our job a little bit easier, but we've tried to enhance the accountability. We have the ability to view all of our students' grades so we have an early alert system to address any challenges, but we're pretty straight forward with what we expect: go to class and do your work. We track every missed assignment, and the coaches hold the students accountable. It's the best collective group of coaches I've ever been a part of. What we have here is extremely rare, from top to bottom and you're seeing that from top to bottom. It's crazy."
Negron's experience in this field is lengthy, too. He's had stints at major programs in Mississippi State, Louisville, and Central Florida.
Never has he been a part of an institution like Florida State.
"This institution is elite in every single aspect," he said. "It just becomes what you strive for every single day."
Now, of course, Negron has a champagne problem on his hand, one familiar to all coaches and athletes who have set a new benchmark either for themselves or their team.
"You know how it is," he said with a knowing grin, "you show a coach what you're capable of, and they expect it every time."
Then he was off, zipping through campus on his golf cart, back to his office, where there were student-athletes to help.
There's a new GPA record to set.
This past fall, the Seminoles set a new record for the team grade point average, finishing with a 3.7. It's a full .2 percentage points highexr than the previous record of 3.5 – roughly the equivalent of sweeping an opponent, 21-15, 21-15 in the sand. It's a number, among many this fall, that blew away Assistant Dean and Associate Athletics Director Miguel Negron
"Each time we were getting a little bit higher," said Negron, who is in his fourth year with Florida State, "But I had a feeling when I was looking at our girls' grades – we have a big roster, so a 3.7 moves the needle a lot for the department."
How big of a jump is .2 percentage points? Look at it this way: It's notable – and is noted with enthusiasm – when a team jumps hundredths of a point in GPA. But two tenths?
Indeed, consider the needle moved.
"Elite," is a word Negron used frequently when describing the 23 women on the beach volleyball roster. But it wasn't just the beach volleyball team.
While they were a highlight academically, to be sure, they were not some random aberration of academic brilliance, but the norm. Across the board, Florida State athletics shined in the classroom, with every single program turning in a GPA above a 3.0, something that has never been done in school history.
All in all, it led to a department-wide average of a 3.3 GPA.
"We've never sniffed a 3.3," Negron said, laughing. "Our previous record was a 3.21. That's a massive jump when you're talking that many student-athletes and GPAs. That's a huge jump. We hadn't gotten a 3.2 until the Fall of 2022, then in the Spring we got a 3.21, then the following fall we got a 3.22, so each time we were getting a little bit higher. When I was looking at other sports, their issues and concerns lists, the lists were smaller. When football's was three pages, I was like 'This semester could be really good.' Football got a 3.0. Every program got a 3.0 for the first time in school history."
Coaches are measured by wins and losses, championships and titles. Negron and the academic department? Their equivalents of the Super Bowl, World Series or the Olympics are the collective GPA, graduation rate and academic progress rate (APR).
"That's our season," he said. "We have a fall season and we have a spring season."
And, with a major assist from the beach volleyball team, Negron brought home his version of an NCAA Championship. Not that he'd take credit for any of it. Sure, he oversees the student-athletes' schedules, holds them accountable when they miss assignments, prods them if they miss class, checks in on them as they're studying in the academics building, but any credit to him and his staff was quickly shrugged off.
"We have amazing coaches," he said, deflecting the praise. "They're recruiting really, really strong student-athletes, so it makes our job a little bit easier, but we've tried to enhance the accountability. We have the ability to view all of our students' grades so we have an early alert system to address any challenges, but we're pretty straight forward with what we expect: go to class and do your work. We track every missed assignment, and the coaches hold the students accountable. It's the best collective group of coaches I've ever been a part of. What we have here is extremely rare, from top to bottom and you're seeing that from top to bottom. It's crazy."
Negron's experience in this field is lengthy, too. He's had stints at major programs in Mississippi State, Louisville, and Central Florida.
Never has he been a part of an institution like Florida State.
"This institution is elite in every single aspect," he said. "It just becomes what you strive for every single day."
Now, of course, Negron has a champagne problem on his hand, one familiar to all coaches and athletes who have set a new benchmark either for themselves or their team.
"You know how it is," he said with a knowing grin, "you show a coach what you're capable of, and they expect it every time."
Then he was off, zipping through campus on his golf cart, back to his office, where there were student-athletes to help.
There's a new GPA record to set.
INSIDE SEMINOLES EPISODE: 14 | Fall Sports, New Facilities
Thursday, October 02
DB Earl Little Jr.: “Crazy physical game”
Wednesday, October 01
HC Mike Norvell: “It’s going to be emotional”
Wednesday, October 01
WR Duce Robinson: “This is why you come to Florida State”
Tuesday, September 30