Dec. 7, 2008
- Greene and the Iowa Hawkeyes
- Game Day Central
- Iowa and the Big Ten Network
- Big Ten Network: Free Hawkeye Video
- 24 Hawkeyes to Watch
- gohawks.com
- Iowa Football wallpaper
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 2008 University of Iowa football team will likely crack all of the nation’s Top 25 polls if it registers a victory over South Carolina in the 2009 Outback Bowl to be played on Jan. 1 in Tampa.
However, the Hawkeyes will enter their seventh bowl game in eight years – and their fifth New Year’s Day game in the same stretch – already among the nation’s leaders in academic success for this year’s bowl-bound college football teams.
Iowa ranks 16th in graduation rate for its football student-athletes according to data collected earlier this fall by the NCAA among the 68 college football teams that will participate in the 34 college football bowl games to be played in the coming weeks. The Hawkeyes rank third among the seven bowl-bound Big Ten Conference football teams.
According to that report – which includes data provided to the U.S. Department of Education – the UI’s graduation success rate for its student-athletes in football was 75 percent.
Navy and Notre Dame top the list of teams at 95 and 94 percent, respectively. Boston College (92), Northwestern (92), Vanderbilt (91) and Air Force (90) are the only other teams with graduation rates of 90 percent or better.
Penn State at 78 percent (11th best) is the only other Big Ten program which ranks ahead of the Hawkeyes. South Carolina, Iowa’s opponent on Jan. 1, ranks 33rd with a graduation success rate of 65 percent.
GRADUATION SUCCESS RATES OF BOWL-BOUND
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS, 2008-09
| RANK | INSTITUTION | RATE |
| 1 | Navy | 95 |
| 2 | Notre Dame | 94 |
| 3 | Boston College | 92 |
| 3 | Northwestern | 92 |
| 5 | Vanderbilt | 91 |
| 6 | Air Force | 90 |
| 7 | Wake Forest | 83 |
| 8 | Rice | 82 |
| 9 | Southern Mississippi | 80 |
| 10 | Texas Tech | 79 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 78 |
| 11 | Penn State | 78 |
| 11 | Troy | 78 |
| 11 | North Carolina | 78 |
| 15 | Connecticut | 77 |
| 16 | IOWA | 75 |
| 16 | Virginia Tech | 75 |
| 18 | East Carolina | 74 |
| 19 | Cincinnati | 73 |
| 19 | Northern Illinois | 73 |
| 21 | Ball State | 72 |
| 22 | Central Michigan | 70 |
| 22 | Miami(Florida) | 70 |
| 22 | Rutgers | 70 |
| 25 | Florida State | 69 |
| 26 | Clemson | 68 |
| 26 | Florida | 68 |
| 26 | Maryland | 68 |
| 29 | Pittsburgh | 67 |
| 29 | Texas Christian | 67 |
| 31 | Colorado State | 66 |
| 32 | South Carolina | 65 |
| 33 | Louisiana Tech | 64 |
| 33 | Oregon State | 64 |
| 33 | Tulsa | 64 |
| 36 | Memphis | 63 |
| 36 | Mississippi | 63 |
| 36 | West Virginia | 63 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 63 |
| 40 | Oklahoma State | 62 |
| 41 | Buffalo | 61 |
| 42 | Missouri | 59 |
| 42 | North Carolina State | 59 |
| 44 | Western Michigan | 58 |
| 45 | Nevada | 57 |
| 45 | Utah | 57 |
| 47 | Brigham Young | 56 |
| 47 | Kentucky | 56 |
| 47 | South Florida | 56 |
| 50 | Alabama | 55 |
| 50 | Boise State | 55 |
| 52 | Louisiana State | 54 |
| 52 | Southern California | 54 |
| 54 | Houston | 53 |
| 54 | Kansas | 53 |
| 54 | Oregon | 53 |
| 54 | California | 53 |
| 58 | Ohio State | 52 |
| 59 | Florida Atlantic | 51 |
| 59 | Michigan State | 51 |
| 59 | Minnesota | 51 |
| 62 | Texas | 50 |
| 63 | Fresno State | 48 |
| 63 | Georgia | 48 |
| 63 | Georgia Tech | 48 |
| 66 | Oklahoma | 46 |
| 67 | Hawaii | 42 |
| 68 | Arizona | 41 |