AFCA awards Owls top academic honor
Coaches honor top graduation rates

BY CHUCK POOL
Special to Rice News

Rice University student-athletes have again been recognized for their academic accomplishments, this time with the top award from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). For the first time, the Rice Owls have earned the AFCA 2010 Academic Achievement Award.

Rice will share the award, which is presented annually by the Touchdown Club of Memphis, with Northwestern University.

Rice and Northwestern each recorded a 100 percent graduation rate for members of its freshman football student-athlete class of 2003. The Owls have earned honorable mention recognition in 21 of the previous 22 years for topping a 90 percent graduation rate. The award will be presented at the AFCA President’s Kickoff Luncheon Jan. 10 at the 2011 AFCA Convention in Dallas.

Rice is the second Conference USA school to be so honored. SMU won the award in 2006.

This year’s award marks the third time the NCAA’s graduation success rate (GSR) formula has been used to select the winner. From 1981 to 2007, the award was presented based on a formula used by the College Football Association and AFCA. Since 2008, the criteria for the AFCA’s Academic Achievement Award is based on the highest NCAA GSR, at least 15 students in the GSR cohort and a federal graduation rate of 75 percent or better.

Forty-two other institutions will be recognized for graduating 75 percent or more of their football student-athletes. Thirteen of those institutions — Air Force, Army, Boston College, BYU, Duke, Iowa, Marshall, Miami (Florida), Navy, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia — achieved a rate of 90 percent or better. The other 29 institutions are Arizona State, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Auburn, Boise State, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Illinois, Kentucky, LSU, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Southern Mississippi, SMU, Stanford, Temple, TCU, Texas Tech, UNLV, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest and Washington.

The Academic Achievement Award was established by the College Football Association (CFA) in 1981. The award recognized the CFA-member Football Bowl Subdivision institution with the highest graduation rate among members of its football team. When the CFA disbanded in 1997, the AFCA stepped in to present the award and conduct a graduation rate survey that encompassed all members of the FBS.

The GSR is based on a six-year graduation window for student-athletes, which is a change from the five-year window used by the CFA and AFCA. The GSR was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees.

Under GSR calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. These outgoing transfers are passed to the receiving institution’s GSR cohort. By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by more than 37 percent.

— Chuck Pool is the assistant athletic director/media relations.