The NCAA has released a new study on graduation rates for college athletes, and graduation rates for football players have risen three percentage points since the last studies, to a record 69%. USA Today cleverly reordered ranked BCS programs into a new top 25, based on academia. The ten teams atop that list are:
BCS Standings: Reordering The Top Ten By Academic Prowess
1. Stanford (13) 86%
2. Miami, Fla. (22) 81%
3. Iowa (18) 79%
Virginia Tech (23) 79%
5. TCU (4) 71%
Missouri (6) 71%
7. Nebraska (14) 68%
8. Alabama (7) 67%
LSU (12) 67%
10. Nevada (24) 66%
All is not rosy, however, as is usually the case when discussing NCAA athletes and academics:
[The] annual academic scorecard was less flattering to many of the sport’s top-tier programs. Seven of the top 10 — including No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Boise State — and 16 of the top 25 in the current Bowl Championship Series standings fell beneath the sport’s four-year average. Oklahoma and Arizona graduated fewer than half of their players.
College football can, in this case, hang its hat on the peg of not being college basketball, but that’s about it.
See More:
