Football Team Succeeding in Classroom and on Field

CLEMSON’S FOOTBALL TEAM HAS FINISHED THE LAST TWO SEASONS WITH A top-10 final ranking in the USA Today coaches’ poll. The NCAA Academic Performance Public Recognition Awards released in May show that the team is performing just as well in the classroom. For the fourth consecutive year, Clemson ranks among the top 10 percent of all FBS football Bowl Subdivision) programs nationally in Academic Progress Rate (APR) score.
Clemson is one of only five FBS programs ranked in the top 10 percent each of the last four years, joining Boise State, Duke, Northwestern and Rutgers. [pullquote align=’left’ font=’chunk’ color=’#f66733′]Clemson is the only FBS program nationally to finish each of the last three seasons in the top 25 of both the AP and USA Today polls on the field, and in the top 10 percent of APR scores in the classroom.[/pullquote]
Excellence in the Academic Progress Rate has translated into a strong graduation rate for the Clemson football program. Over the last four years, 67 of Clemson’s 72 seniors have earned degrees, 93.1 percent. The APR is a metric developed to track the academic achievement of teams each academic term. Each studentathlete receiving athletically related financial aid earns one retention point for staying in school and one eligibility point for being academically eligible. A team’s total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by one thousand to equal the team’s APR score.