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.
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 |
1 | 13 | |
2 | 8 | |
3 | 6 | |
4 | 1 | |
5 | 11 | |
6 | 2 | |
7 | 24 | |
8 | 9 | |
9 | 14 | |
10 | 20 | |
11 | 17 | |
12 | 12 | |
13 | 22 | |
14 | 19 | |
15 | 4 | |
16 | 18 | |
17 | 23 | |
18 | 7 | |
19 | 5 | |
20 | 16 | |
21 | 15 | |
22 | 3 | |
23 | 25 | |
24 | 10 | |
DQ* | 21 |
