Northwestern, Notre Dame top college football academic rankings

Northwestern, Notre Dame and Stanford top the list of College Football Playoff top 25 teams ranked by academic performance.

The rankings were calculated by think tank New America and first published by Time.

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New America calculates the ranking by comparing the graduation success rates (GSR) of the top 25 football teams according to College Football Playoff rankings. The NCAA tabulates GSR, which only penalizes schools with players who transfer or sign with professional teams if those players were not in good academic standing when they left.

In New America’s calculations, schools earn points for having high graduation rates for the student body as a whole, but lose points if there is a discrepancy between graduation rates of football players and the male student body.

SchOOL	ACADEMIC RANKING	PLAYOFF RANKING
Northwestern	1	13
Notre Dame	2	8
Stanford	3	6
Clemson	4	1
TCU	5	11
Alabama	6	2
Temple	7	24
Florida State	8	9
Michigan	9	14
LSU	10	20
Baylor	11	17
Ole Miss	12	12
Utah	13	22
Florida	14	19
Oklahoma	15	4
Houston	16	18
Tennessee	17	23
Ohio State	18	7
Iowa	19	5
Oklahoma State	20	16
Oregon	21	15
Michigan State	22	3
USC	23	25
North Carolina	24	10
Navy	DQ*	21

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