Virginia Tech Football Ranked #4 in Academics according to Time.com
As it has done for the last two years, New America compiled the rankings by beginning with each school's football graduation success rate (GSR). The GSR is a NCAA measure that, unlike the federal graduation rate, doesn't penalize schools for having players who transfer or leave for the pros–as long as those players depart in good academic standing. The higher the school's graduation success rate, the higher they start out in New America's rankings. Schools lose points for graduating football players at different rates than their overall male student body. To compare players to students, New America relied on federal rates, since there's no GSR for the general population. (The service academies do not provide a federal rate, which means Navy, No. 25 in football, is excluded from the ranking.) The bigger the discrepancy, the harsher the penalty. Even if a school graduated football players at a higher rate than the overall male student population—and five schools in the top 25, Stanford, Clemson, Louisville, Temple, and Western Michigan, did—the difference was counted as a penalty. New America does not want to reward schools with low overall graduation rates. Schools were awarded an added bonus for having high overall rates.
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Comments
Stanford was penalized for having a higher graduation rate amongst football players than the general male student body?
Not sure this metric accounts for outliers, but I haven't seen the data
I'd imagine the thinking is something along the lines of 'the reason they're graduating at a higher rate is because they're being funneled into easier degree programs' or similar...
Logical; perhaps
Really glad to hear we're getting it done in the classroom. Nice work, men.