Academic Football Playoff Series 2015
Blog Post
Dec. 18, 2015
In August, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dismissed a petition by the Northwestern University football team to unionize. By doing so, the board effectively denied players the right to be considered employees of the university. Northwestern is not the only team to have made a stand for basic rights, and they will likely not be the last. But regardless of how things shake out in the near future, colleges should begin by granting football players something arguably more valuable than four years of compensation. They should ensure that all their students, including football players, have a real opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Every year, New America tests whether the schools with top-ranked football programs are serving their players’ academic needs. The Academic Football Playoff Series (AFPS), now in its ninth year, ranks schools using the Graduation Success Rate — an NCAA measure that rewards schools for graduating students, but prevents them from being penalized if players leave in good academic standing (the idea being that universities shouldn’t be penalized if a student-athlete transfers or decides to go pro). The New America formula also accounts for the disparity between a school’s overall graduation rate and the football graduation rate to ensure that schools are serving players and the general student body equitably.
In some instances, we found major differences in the graduation rate for football players compared to the general student body. UNC, who came in last on this year’s academic rankings, graduates its team 57 percentage points lower than the rest of its male students. The particularly low 31 percent graduation rate for football players at UNC proves especially distressing given the university's fraudulent academic practices that were meant to boost players’ grades.
On the other hand, Clemson maintained an equally high graduation rate of 79 percent for both its football team and its overall student body, earning it a respectable number 4 spot on our list. In the end, the top school this year, Northwestern, put forth an impressive 97 percent GSR and graduated its players within seven percentage points of other students. Fortunately, for the Northwestern athletes who were denied the right to unionize, many of them can at least expect to leave with a degree.
Below are a full list of our 2015 rankings.
To see 2014’s rankings, click here.
Click here for a full explanation of our methodology and here for the spreadsheet with data and formulas"