• The WSU Athletic Department earned three national awards during the 2006-07 academic year:

The department was recognized as a Program of Excellence by the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association. The Program of Excellence award is designed to recognize Division I-A athletics programs that have established student-athlete welfare as the cornerstone of their operating principles.

For the second consecutive year the department earned the Diversity in Athletics Award presented by the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport at Texas A&M University (recognized in the "Overall Excellence in Diversity" and "Title IX Compliance" categories). The Diversity in Athletics Award recognizes the NCAA Division I-A athletic departments that excel in the area of diversity.

WSU was a recipient of the inaugural "Opportunity Awards," presented by the Women's Sports Foundation. In an effort to recognize schools that consistently provide equitable opportunities to their female student-athletes and set a tone in their athletic department that reflect the schools' overall ideals and aspirations, the foundation created the "Opportunity Awards." The foundation selected one school from each region of the country that represents these qualities and can serve as ambassadors for their segment of the country. WSU is the West region recipient.

• Athletics was one of three WSU departments, along with Residence Life and the University Recreation Center, that were recognized by the WSU campus affiliate of the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI). The award given to the three departments recognized their efforts and continuous support of the NCBI and the Diversity Education Initiative.

• Student-athletes achieved in the classroom earning a cumulative GPA of over a 3.0.

• Women's track and field and volleyball teams had their best fall and spring semester GPA.

• The women's and men's cross country teams were named Div. I All-Academic teams by the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The men had a cumulative grade point average of 3.110 and finished 29th at the NCAA 2006 Championships.

• The 26 wins by the men's basketball team tied it with the 1941 national runner-up squad for the most in school history and was good enough to earn a No. 3 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994, and posted their first NCAA Tournament win in 24 years with a first round defeat of Oral Roberts University.

• Diana Pickler (2nd) and Julie Pickler (9th) attained their fourth All-America certificates with their pentathlon finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships and Julie Pickler picked up her fifth All-America honor with her runner-up finish in the heptathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships

• Swimming was named to the Division I Academic All-American list for fall 2006 semester, by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). Erin McCleave qualified for the NCAA Championships and earned All-America honors in two events to become just the third WSU swimmer to earn All-America honors and only the second to do so multiple times.

• Eight Washington State University sports scored points in the United States Sports Academy Directors' Cup during 2006-07, giving the Cougars their best finish in four years. WSU finished 70th nationally with 283 points, the Cougars best mark since a 55th place finish and school record 351.5 points in 2002-03. WSU tallied points in eight sports, tied for the most in school history (2001-02 and 2002-03).

• 2006-07 WSU freshmen student-athletes averaged a 3.12 cumulative GPA.

• Over the last 10 years, the graduation rate of WSU student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility is 92 percent, which is second in the Pac-10 Conference.

• WSU is the only Pac-10 Conference institution that graduates male student-athletes at a higher rate than all University male students.

• WSU is ranked second in the Pac-10 Conference in several academic areas: 1) male student-athlete graduation rate; 2) football student-athlete graduation rate; 3) African American student-athlete graduation rate; and 4) baseball student-athlete graduation rate.