UCF Knights Football Would Compete For National Title Based On Graduation Rates

UCF second in nation, seventh WITH FBS schools

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – If the college football national championship playoffs were based on how many student-athletes graduate, the University of Central Florida Knights would be one of the teams competing for the trophy, according to an academic success study released Monday.

UCF’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport examined NCAA records showing the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of each of the 80 schools that will play in bowl games over the next few weeks.

The results, reported in “Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the Academic Records of the 2016-2017 Bowl-bound College Football Teams,” show that UCF’s football GSR is 91 percent.

That ranks second in the nation among public institutions and seventh among all FBS schools.

A GSR-based football championship would put Stanford, South Carolina, Northwestern, UCF and Wake Forest (tied with UCF) in the playoffs.

In a column written for ESPN, Richard Lapchick, director of the UCF institute and the primary author of the study, pointed to UCF as an example of how success both on the field and in the classroom are possible when academics are made a priority.

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