Iowa grad rates come in at No. 16 among bowl teams

(This is a release from the UI. I think Iowa has been higher in the past, but this beats the heck out of the storylines last December. I included the chart for comparison. Interesting.)

The 2008 University of Iowa football team will likely crack all of the nation's Top 25 polls if it registers a victory over South Carolina in the 2009 Outback Bowl to be played on Jan. 1 in Tampa.

However, the Hawkeyes will enter their seventh bowl game in eight years - and their fifth New Year's Day game in the same stretch - already among the nation's leaders in academic success for this year's bowl-bound college football teams.

Iowa ranks 16th in graduation rate for its football student-athletes according to data collected earlier this fall by the NCAA among the 68 college football teams that will participate in the 34 college football bowl games to be played in the coming weeks. The Hawkeyes rank third among the seven bowl-bound Big Ten Conference football teams.

According to that report - which includes data provided to the U.S. Department of Education - the UI's graduation rate for its student-athletes in football was 75 percent, a mark that is seven points better than that posted by all students who enrolled in the UI in the fall of 2001 and 11 points shy of the total posted by all student-athletes.

Navy and Notre Dame top the list of teams at 95 and 94 percent, respectively. Boston College (92), Northwestern (92), Vanderbilt (91) and Air Force (90) are the only other teams with graduation rates of 90 percent or better.

Penn State at 78 percent (11th best) is the only other Big Ten program which ranks ahead of the Hawkeyes. South Carolina, Iowa's opponent on Jan. 1, ranks 33rd with a graduation rate of 65 percent.

GRADUATION RATES OF BOWL-BOUND

COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS, 2008-09

RANK

INSTITUTION

RATE

1

Navy

95

2

Notre Dame

94

3

Boston College

92

3

Northwestern

92

5

Vanderbilt

91

6

Air Force

90

7

Wake Forest

83

8

Rice

82

9

Southern Mississippi

80

10

Texas Tech

79

11

Nebraska

78

11

Penn State

78

11

Troy

78

11

North Carolina

78

15

Connecticut

77

16

IOWA

75

16

Virginia Tech

75

18

East Carolina

74

19

Cincinnati

73

19

Northern Illinois

73

21

Ball State

72

22

Central Michigan

70

22

Miami(Florida)

70

22

Rutgers

70

25

Florida State

69

26

Clemson

68

26

Florida

68

26

Maryland

68

29

Pittsburgh

67

29

Texas Christian

67

31

Colorado State

66

32

South Carolina

65

33

Louisiana Tech

64

33

Oregon State

64

33

Tulsa

64

36

Memphis

63

36

Mississippi

63

36

West Virginia

63

39

Wisconsin

63

40

Oklahoma State

62

41

Buffalo

61

42

Missouri

59

42

North Carolina State

59

44

Western Michigan

58

45

Nevada

57

45

Utah

57

47

Brigham Young

56

47

Kentucky

56

47

South Florida

56

50

Alabama

55

50

Boise State

55

52

Louisiana State

54

52

Southern California

54

54

Houston

53

54

Kansas

53

54

Oregon

53

54

California

53

58

Ohio State

52

59

Florida Atlantic

51

59

Michigan State

51

59

Minnesota

51

62

Texas

50

63

Fresno State

48

63

Georgia

48

63

Georgia Tech

48

66

Oklahoma

46

67

Hawaii

42

68

Arizona

41