Alabama's #7? What'd they do, annex UAB? Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI Real Estate Broker Bob Parks, LLC 1517 Hunt Club Blvd Gallatin TN 37066 615-972-4239 615-826-4040 Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message: > From: Woody Bass <[email protected]> > Date: December 11, 2012 10:11:36 AM CST > To: WXIA <[email protected]> > Subject: [gatornews] Northwestern, Northern Illinois Take The Top Spots in > the Academic BCS | TIME.com > Reply-To: [email protected] > > http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2012/12/11/the-college-football-top-25-as-ranked-by-academics/ > > The College Football Top 25 – As Ranked By Academics > > New America Foundation > Northwestern University, the 20th-ranked college football team in the nation, > won’t win a national title on the field this year. But the Wildcats are first > in the classroom, according to the “Academic BCS,” the New America > Foundation’s annual academic performance rankings of the top-25 college > football teams. > > Northwestern’s top finish is not surprising. But the New America Foundation’s > second-best academic team, Northern Illinois — which finished ahead of > schools like Notre Dame, which will play for the national championship on > Jan. 7 against Alabama, and Stanford — is a more curious case. The Huskies, > who earned a bid to the Jan. 1 Orange Bowl, are a surprise both on and off > the field. > > How did Northern Illinois finish so high? The New America rankings are not > just based 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. If that were the case, a school such as Notre Dame, which > graduates 83% of its players, according to federal data, would finish well > above Northern Illinois, which has a 66% rate. > > (VIDEO: How a D.C. High School Football Team Beat All Odds) > > 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. “Our formula is the only one out there > that puts these statistics into context,” says Alex Holt, an education > researcher at the New America Foundation. (New America’s formula gives less > weight to a school’s Academic Progress Rate, which it considers a less > rigorous test, than actually graduating). > > So Northern Illinois scores major points because football players graduate at > a higher rate (66%) than the Northern Illinois student body at large (51%). > At Northern Illinois, 72% of white players graduate, while 63% of black > football players graduate: that’s a nine-point difference. In the general > population, 56% of white male students at Northern Illinois graduate, > compared to 30% of black male students. That’s a 26-point difference for the > student body, compared to a nine-point difference for the football team: > again, New America credits Northern Illinois football for outperforming the > rest of the school. Also, while 63% of Northern Illinois’ black football > players graduate, just 30% of black male students graduate overall. That > 33-point difference propels the Huskies to the top of the standings. > > (MORE: How Notre Dame Has Lifted College Football) > > On the flip side, look at the team from Michigan, a school with a strong > academic reputation, yet finishes near the bottom of these rankings. While > Michigan graduates 88% of its students, only 59% of Wolverine football > players get their diplomas. While the black-white graduate gap on the > football team is only four points worse than black-white gap for all male > students, just 47% of Michigan’s black football players graduate, compared > with 70% of Michigan’s black male students overall. > > (For more details on each school in New America’s study, click here for a > graphical representation of the results.) > > Almost all education rankings are imperfect, and New America’s research is no > different. In order to make comparisons with overall graduation rates on a > given campus, for example, New America Foundation uses federal graduation > rates in its data. College athletic departments have criticized these rates > for understating an athletic team’s performance, since players who transfer > out of a school and pursue a degree elsewhere, or leave early for the pros, > count against them. To account for athlete mobility, the NCAA came up with > the “graduation success rate” (GSR), which credits teams for graduating > incoming transfers, and doesn’t penalize them for having players transfer out > or pursue the pros. For almost all teams, the GSR is higher than the federal > rate. But there is no GSR for the rest of the student body, so New America > uses the federal rate to make comparisons. > > (PHOTOS: Top 10 College Football Gameday Traditions) > > Aside from the baseline numbers, you can certainly question a methodology > that gives more credence to campus context than raw performance, which puts > Northern Illinois, with its 66% federal graduation rate for football, above > Notre Dame, at 83% (Northern Illinois has a 83% GSR, while Notre Dame’s GSR > is 97%). But no matter how you slice the numbers, as we go into bowl-game > season, the study reminds us of the shortcomings of college sports. For 19 of > the top 25 football teams — or 76% — their federal graduation rates are lower > than those of the overall student population. On 22 of the top 25 college > football teams — or 88% — more than 30% of the players fail to graduate. > Using the more generous, and probably fair, measure — the GSR — 15 out of the > top 25 college football teams (60%) fail to graduate more than 30% of their > players. > > That’s just not a winning game plan. > > > > Woody (via iPhone) > -- > GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! > 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions > 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions > 2008 National Football Champions | > Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), > Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
