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Northwestern takes first in 'Academic BCS' standings

Josh Walfish, Gameday Editor
December 12, 2012

Northwestern can take pleasure in knowing that it's ranked No. 1 in the Bowl Championship Series for academics.

A poll released Monday by the New America Foundation ranked the Wildcats as the best academic team among the 25 schools listed in the final BCS standings of the season. The rankings not only take into account a team's NCAA Academic Progress Rate, but also how a program's graduation rate compares with that of the student body, how the black-to-white graduation rate match up and how well the graduation rate among black players compare to black students at the school.

NU graduates 90 percent of its players with both races having a graduation rate of 89 percent, two percentage points higher than the black graduation rate for the school as a whole. The Cats finished with 139 points, 12.3 more than second-place Northern Illinois and 59.3 points ahead of Nebraska, the next-highest Big Ten school on the list.

The two teams playing for the national title on the football field this year, Notre Dame and Alabama, finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the rankings.

— Josh Walfish

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5 Responses to “Northwestern takes first in 'Academic BCS' standings”

  1. Florida State last in ‘Academic BCS’ – ESPN (blog) | Sports News Zone on December 12th, 2012 4:44 pm

    [...] total. You are probably wondering how …KSU would rank 17th if BCS was based on academicsKSN-TVNorthwestern takes first in 'Academic BCS' standingsDaily Northwestern (blog)The College Football Top 25 – As Ranked By AcademicsTIME (blog)College [...]

  2. Bob on December 13th, 2012 9:05 am

    It's al relative. No absolute standards anymore.

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  3. Northwestern, Northern Illinois top ‘Academic BCS’ rankings – CNN (blog) | Sports News Zone on December 13th, 2012 1:08 pm

    [...] Kansas CityFlorida State last in 'Academic BCS' – ACC Blog – ESPNESPN (blog)Daily Northwestern (blog) -TIME (blog) -College Spunall 24 news [...]

  4. M.A. Russell, McC '89 & '98 on December 13th, 2012 4:26 pm

    Now, this is a statistic to be proud of. I lived through 3-8 seasons, and went to about every home game, but never lost patience or pride in our football team. They gave us sixty minutes of football every weekend.

    Given a choice, I'll take our players greaduating and healthy ahead of winning any day. A, now rather long, record of winning seasons? That's icing on the cake.

    Coach Fitz, the rest of the coaches, the staff, administration, and the above all the players themselves, all deserve our respect and appreciation for keeping this tradition of genuine student-athletes alive and kicking.

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  5. Rusty on January 2nd, 2013 10:43 am

    Alabama is #7? That's a surprise to me.

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