Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Letter from the desk of Director of Athletics Chris Massaro
6/9/2021 5:00:00 PM | General, BRAA
Dear Blue Raider faithful,
The 2020-21 academic year, to put it mildly, was the most interesting in my many years in college athletics. I would first like to congratulate and thank our student athletes and coaches for their sacrifices, their fantastic representation of our remarkable University, and their achievements of competing in a global pandemic.
It is almost impossible to describe the roller coaster of emotion we experienced - and each team dealt with the pandemic and its enormous impact in its own way. This year of uncertainty caused tremendous internal anxiety and I admire all our employees, coaches, and student athletes for staying in the fight.
Through all the turmoil, we had some remarkable achievements. We won six Conference USA championships (five league championships and one division title) – the most of any C-USA school. Hats off to women's cross country, women's basketball, men's tennis, men's golf, and women's outdoor track for their achievements. I want to offer a special salute as well to women's golf (C-USA runner-up) and to baseball (first time in C-USA tournament since 2015). Here is how we stacked up with our conference peers:
Gallery: (6-9-2021) @MTAthletics 2021 Championship Photos
These athletic achievements were coupled with some outstanding academic results as well. The most important number is that we graduated 64 student athletes in the fall and spring semesters. We have achieved that remarkable athletic success without compromising our outstanding academic milestones. As we announced in October, our Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is a whopping 93%. This ranks us second in C-USA behind Rice's 94%. I also want to again brag about football's GSR. We ranked tied for third nationally at 95% trailing only Northwestern and Duke. We were tied with Vanderbilt and we were the top-ranking public school in the country!
This year, we had 209 Student Athletes on the C-USA Honor Roll (3.0 GPA and above), which is up from 186 from last year. We had 67 student athletes earn the C-USA Academic Medal (3.75 GPA and above), which is up for 58 from a year ago. We had 57 student athletes earn a perfect 4.0 in the spring semester. Our top team GPA's in the spring semester was women's golf at 3.789 and our overall winner was men's tennis with a remarkable 3.907 team GPA! They accomplished this while cruising to another C-USA title and national ranking.
As proud as we are of these accomplishments, we know we have areas where we must improve. We certainly are not perfect and fully expect football and men's basketball to have much better seasons than we did this past year. Both programs have had excellent off seasons and we look forward to much better results in 2021-22. Additionally, we need to finish our fundraising and funding for our proposed Student-Athlete Performance Center and our outdoor tennis courts. I am optimistic these goals can be reached in the fall and we can begin the serious design phase on both projects.
Facilities will likely play an even greater role in intercollegiate athletics as we have seen with the ease of transferring rules. Great facilities will make MTSU even harder to transfer from and will make us more attractive to those that are transferring from their old school. We must complete these projects for us to improve ourselves nationally.
We continue to combine high academic achievement with championship results athletically. Every Blue Raider makes a huge difference to our success and I am extremely grateful for your support. I thank everyone who has already contributed to the BRAA. And for those still weighing your decision, please know that June 30 is the end of our fiscal year. All gifts are welcome, and all gifts are impactful. I hope you consider investing in the future of the young women and men to help their athletic and academic dreams come true.
Here's how to make your gift to the BRAA today. Call the BRAA office at 615-898-2210 to make your gift over the phone. You can also make your gift online by clicking here, or by texting "BRAA" to 91999 and a link will be sent to you. Follow the prompts in the link to make your gift. If you would like to mail your gift send to: Blue Raider Athletic Association, MTSU Box 576, Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132.
Here is to an even better 2021-22! Thanks again for your support.
Go Blue Raiders!
Chris Massaro
Director of Athletics
The 2020-21 academic year, to put it mildly, was the most interesting in my many years in college athletics. I would first like to congratulate and thank our student athletes and coaches for their sacrifices, their fantastic representation of our remarkable University, and their achievements of competing in a global pandemic.
It is almost impossible to describe the roller coaster of emotion we experienced - and each team dealt with the pandemic and its enormous impact in its own way. This year of uncertainty caused tremendous internal anxiety and I admire all our employees, coaches, and student athletes for staying in the fight.
Through all the turmoil, we had some remarkable achievements. We won six Conference USA championships (five league championships and one division title) – the most of any C-USA school. Hats off to women's cross country, women's basketball, men's tennis, men's golf, and women's outdoor track for their achievements. I want to offer a special salute as well to women's golf (C-USA runner-up) and to baseball (first time in C-USA tournament since 2015). Here is how we stacked up with our conference peers:
| MTSU Charlotte WKU Rice |
6 (5 championships, 1 divisional) 5 (3 championships, 2 divisional) 5 (2 championships, 3 divisional) 4 (1 championship, 3 divisional) |
These athletic achievements were coupled with some outstanding academic results as well. The most important number is that we graduated 64 student athletes in the fall and spring semesters. We have achieved that remarkable athletic success without compromising our outstanding academic milestones. As we announced in October, our Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is a whopping 93%. This ranks us second in C-USA behind Rice's 94%. I also want to again brag about football's GSR. We ranked tied for third nationally at 95% trailing only Northwestern and Duke. We were tied with Vanderbilt and we were the top-ranking public school in the country!
This year, we had 209 Student Athletes on the C-USA Honor Roll (3.0 GPA and above), which is up from 186 from last year. We had 67 student athletes earn the C-USA Academic Medal (3.75 GPA and above), which is up for 58 from a year ago. We had 57 student athletes earn a perfect 4.0 in the spring semester. Our top team GPA's in the spring semester was women's golf at 3.789 and our overall winner was men's tennis with a remarkable 3.907 team GPA! They accomplished this while cruising to another C-USA title and national ranking.
As proud as we are of these accomplishments, we know we have areas where we must improve. We certainly are not perfect and fully expect football and men's basketball to have much better seasons than we did this past year. Both programs have had excellent off seasons and we look forward to much better results in 2021-22. Additionally, we need to finish our fundraising and funding for our proposed Student-Athlete Performance Center and our outdoor tennis courts. I am optimistic these goals can be reached in the fall and we can begin the serious design phase on both projects.
Facilities will likely play an even greater role in intercollegiate athletics as we have seen with the ease of transferring rules. Great facilities will make MTSU even harder to transfer from and will make us more attractive to those that are transferring from their old school. We must complete these projects for us to improve ourselves nationally.
We continue to combine high academic achievement with championship results athletically. Every Blue Raider makes a huge difference to our success and I am extremely grateful for your support. I thank everyone who has already contributed to the BRAA. And for those still weighing your decision, please know that June 30 is the end of our fiscal year. All gifts are welcome, and all gifts are impactful. I hope you consider investing in the future of the young women and men to help their athletic and academic dreams come true.
Here's how to make your gift to the BRAA today. Call the BRAA office at 615-898-2210 to make your gift over the phone. You can also make your gift online by clicking here, or by texting "BRAA" to 91999 and a link will be sent to you. Follow the prompts in the link to make your gift. If you would like to mail your gift send to: Blue Raider Athletic Association, MTSU Box 576, Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132.
Here is to an even better 2021-22! Thanks again for your support.
Go Blue Raiders!
Chris Massaro
Director of Athletics
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MTSU Football Postgame Press Conference @ Nevada on 09-13-25
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MTSU Volleyball Recap 9/5/25-9/7/25
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MTSU Tennis Pro-Am 9/6/25
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