May 10, 2006

USA Today ran a graphic that presented a combination of academic and athletic success of the football programs at ACC member institutions. The newspaper took the final USA Today/Coaches Top 25 poll and re-ordered it using the recently released NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR).

The re-organized poll has five ACC teams among the Top 15, including the "academic" No. 1 Boston College with a 982 APR score and Florida State at No. 4 with a 959 score. Miami ranked sixth at 956, Clemson 12th with a 940 and Virginia Tech 14th at 935.

The Academic Progress Rate (APR) metric was developed by the NCAA in 2004 to examine academic success on a more real-time basis. One point is awarded each term to each scholarship student-athlete who meets academic-eligibility standards and an additional point is awarded if they remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible. A cutoff score of 925 corresponds to an anticipated graduation-rate of about 50%.

	#	School (Final Coaches Poll)	APR
	1.	Boston College (17)		982
	2.	Auburn (14)		981
	3.	Florida (16)		966
	4.	Florida State (23)		959
	5.	Penn State (3)		957
	6.	Miami, Fla. (18)		956
	7.	TCU (9)		953
	8.	Louisville (20)		952
	11.	Georgia (10)		950
	10.	Notre Dame (11)		946
	11.	California (25)		945
	12.	Clemson (21)		940
	13.	LSU (5)		935
	14.	Virginia Tech (7)		935
	15.	Nebraska (24)		932
	16.	Texas (1)		931
	17.	Southern California (2)		929
	18.	Texas Tech (19)		928
	19.	Oklahoma (22)		928
	20.	West Virginia (6)		926
	21.	Ohio State (4)		925
	22.	Alabama (8)		916
	23.	UCLA (13)		915
	24.	Wisconsin (15)		914
	25.	Oregon (12)		900
	    Source:  USA Today