Utah State Football Ranked Ninth Nationally For Academic Performance
Utah State University football continues to be recognized nationally following its most successful season in school history, but its most recent recognition is in the classroom.
In a recent announcement, USU is ranked ninth in the nation for academic performance, according to the Academic Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Poll.
The Academic BCS, the New America Foundation’s annual academic performance rankings, utilizes those 25 schools appearing in the final BCS standings and ranks them academically. Utah State finished the 2012 season ranked 22nd in the final BCS standings.
Northwestern finished the year ranked 20th in the final BCS standings and is ranked first in the Academic BCS standings, followed by Northern Illinois, Boise State, Stanford, Notre Dame, San Jose State, Alabama, Nebraska, Utah State and Georgia. Teams ranked 11 through 20 include LSU, Oregon State, Clemson, Texas A&M, Florida, Oregon, Kansas State, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Kent State. The final five teams listed among the Academic BCS are Michigan, Texas, UCLA, Louisville and Florida State.
The New America rankings are not based only on raw statistics like graduation rates or the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate, which indicate how well a team is keeping its players on track to graduate. Instead, the New America Foundation bases its rankings on several factors: how a football team’s graduation rate compares to that of the school’s overall male student body, how a team’s black-white graduation gap compares to the male black-white graduation gap in the general student population, and the spread between a football team’s black graduation rate and the school’s overall graduation rate for black men.
Utah State had its most successful season in school history in 2012 with its 11-2 record, setting school records for wins (11) and home wins (6), while being nationally ranked in the Associated Press poll for three-straight weeks for the first time in school history. USU also won its first outright conference championship since 1936 and just its third in school history joining the 1921 and 1936 teams that both won Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles.
Utah State also finished the 2012 season winning its final seven games, which is tied for the fourth-longest active winning streak in the nation and tied for the third-longest winning streak in school history.
Related links:
Contact: Doug Hoffman, assistant athletics director for media relations, (435) 797-3714, doug.hoffman@usu.edu
Comments and questions regarding this article may be directed to the contact person listed on this page.
