Dec. 4, 2011
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IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 2011 Insight Bowl-bound University of Iowa football team once again ranks among the nation’s elite when one examines the academic success of the college football teams invited to participate in post-season play.
The Iowa Hawkeyes – who will play the Oklahoma Sooners in the 10th bowl game under head coach Kirk Ferentz on Dec. 30 in Tempe, Ariz. – rank eighth nationally with a 2011 NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 83 percent. Kirk Ferentz squad is only of only nine bowl-bound teams to score 80 percent or better on the NCAA’s “real-time” measurement of academic success.
The Hawkeyes rank third among the 10 Big Ten Conference teams scheduled to participate in a bowl game later this month or early in January 2012. The Big Ten is also the only conference with more than one team at 80 percent or better.
Notre Dame sits at No. 1 nationally with a GSR of 97. The national average for Football Bowl Subdivision football programs is a GSR score of 69.
“We’re excited to be returning to the Valley of the Sun and the 2011 Insight Bowl, and to be doing that with a football program that is committed to high achievement, not only on the playing field, but also in the classroom. This ranking is a compliment to our student-athletes, coaching staff, academic support staff and our faculty and staff on the UI campus,” said Gary Barta, the UI’s director of athletics.
The NCAA released its annual report on the academic progress of student-athletes across the country in October and the numbers were exceptional for the intercollegiate athletics program at the UI in addition to being outstanding nationally.
The UI tied a school record by posting a department-wide score of 86 percent in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate. Iowa’s GSR’s in football (83), men’s basketball (73) and women’s basketball (100) all bested the national averages of 69, 68 and 86, respectively.
The NCAA developed the GSR to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. Unlike the federal graduation rate, the GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer student-athletes. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for all sports.
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“We’re excited to be returning to the Valley of the Sun and the 2011 Insight Bowl, and to be doing that with a football program that is committed to high achievement, not only on the playing field, but also in the classroom. This ranking is a compliment to our student-athletes, coaching staff, academic support staff and our faculty and staff on the UI campus.”
Gary Barta
UI Director of Athletics |
Five different women’s teams at the UI posted perfect 100 GSR scores: basketball, field hockey, golf, gymnastics and softball. In addition, the women’s swimming and diving, and rowing teams scored 95 and 93, respectively.
The baseball team paced Iowa’s men’s teams with a GSR of 96. It was followed by men’s gymnastics (88), men’s tennis (86), football (83) and cross country/track and field (81). The UI also achieved the following in addition to the aforementioned:
- Iowa’s women’s gymnastics team scored a perfect 100 on the GSR for the sixth consecutive year.
- Iowa’s women’s basketball team scored a perfect 100 on the GSR for the third straight year.
- Iowa’s women’s golf team posted a perfect 100 on the GSR for the second straight year.
- The 100 posted by Iowa’s softball team is the first in the program’s history.
- The 96 GSR by Iowa’s baseball team is the best in program’s history.
- The 85 GSR by Iowa’s women’s cross country and track and field teams is the best in the program’s history.
- The 83 posted by Iowa’s football team is the best in the program’s history.
The most recent NCAA Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes of student-athletes from 2001-02 through 2004-05. Iowa has scored 81 percent or better in six of the seven GSR reports issued by the NCAA. The UI earned a GSR score of 84 last year. It scored its first 86 in 2001.
The NCAA noted in October that more than eight out of every 10 Division I student-athletes have earned their college degrees within six years, the highest marks ever for graduation. The GSR for student-athletes who began college in 2004 is 82 percent, a new high for the NCAA, three points higher than last year, and eight points higher than when the NCAA introduced the GSR a decade ago.
According to the NCAA, 74 percent of the 171 student-athletes who enrolled in the UI in the fall semester of the 2004-05 academic year have earned their degree. The 74 percent – as measured by the federal government – ties the best ever posted by UI student-athletes; Iowa recorded a graduation rate of 74 percent in its 2001 report on the academic work of the class of 1994-95.
Iowa’s 74 percent graduation rate is 13 points better than a year ago, four points better than the graduation rate for all students who enrolled at the UI (70 percent), and nine percentage points better than the national average of 65 percent – the highest ever achieved by a single class of student-athletes nationwide.
2011-12 BOWL-BOUND FOOTBALL TEAM AND
THE NCAA’S GRADUATION SUCCESS RATE
The Iowa Hawkeyes are one of only nine bowl-bound college football teams with a NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 80 percent or better. The NCAA developed the GSR seven years ago to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
97 – Notre Dame (Independent)
94 – Northwestern (Big Ten)
89 – Rutgers (Big East)
87 – Stanford (Pac-12)
87 – Penn State (Big Ten)
86 – Vanderbilt (Southeastern)
84 – Air Force (Mountain West)
83 – IOWA(Big Ten)
81 – Wake Forest (Atlantic Coast)