I thought this was pretty interesting (hat-tip Lake The Posts) the from The Higher Ed Watch Blog, the Second Annual Academic Bowl Championship Series Rankings, which grades BCS football teams based on their academic performance using a formula:
The formula starts with the team's most recent federal graduation rate, which includes four classes of players who entered college between 1998 and 2001 and graduated within six years of initial enrollment. Then, each team gains or loses points based on (A) the gap between the team's graduation rate and the overall school's graduation rate and (B) the gap between the team's black-white player graduation rate disparity and the overall school's disparity. Finally, the team gains or loses points if its Academic Progress Rate exceeds or falls below the Division I-A median.
Surprisingly, Texas Tech is not the best Big 12 school, it's Oklahoma State at #7, but the Red Raiders are #12, right ahead of Ole Miss.
Winning on the field and graduating players.
And there was this biting bit of commentary on the University of Texas:
Every year, college football fans get caught up in some "major" controversy with the BCS rankings. They spend hours talking about obscure statistics and cursing computer formulas. This year, it was Oklahoma and Texas fans battling it out for the right to play in the Big 12 and National Championship games. Texas fans were devastated when they lost the rankings fight.But the real tragedy for this team is that only 40 percent of its players, and only 27 percent of its black players, will graduate. Texas' football players put the University on the national stage. And what do they get in return? Besides the precious few that will make it to the NFL, most will leave school without a degree and with few career prospects.