Clemson Football Graduation Rate Cited By AFCA

June 8, 2000

Clemson, SC–The Clemson football program has been cited by the American Football Coaches Association for a graduation rate of over 70 percent, according to a release by the association on Wednesday. It is the second straight year Clemson has been on the academic excellence list.

For the class entering in the fall of 1994, Clemson had a 76.46 percent graduation rate. The national average is 57 percent. Clemson was one of 27 Division I schools named in the list.

“We congratulate our student-athletes first,” said Athletic Director Bobby Robinson. “We also feel this is a testimony to the efforts of our coaches and Bill D’Andrea’s staff at the Department of Student-Athlete Enrichment Programs.

“We have seen consistent improvement in the academic performance of our football program and all of our athletic teams in recent years since we built Vickery Hall in 1991. We are pleased with these results and our inclusion on this prestigious list.”

This past spring the Clemson football team had a team GPA of 2.49 and 39 academic honor roll members. Those were the highest figures on record for the Clemson football program.

During the fall two Clemson players were named to the Academic All-America team. Center Kyle Young was named first-team, while linebacker Chad Carson was a second-team selection. It was the first time in history that Clemson had two academic All-Americans in the same year. Clemson is the only school in the nation with two returning academic All-Americans for the 2000 season.

Clemson is one of four ACC schools to make the list of schools honored for their graduation rates. The other ACC schools with a graduation rate of at least 70 percent were Duke, Virginia, and Wake Forest. Syracuse was named the Academic Achievement Award champion, having had 100 percent of its players graduate.

The complete list of schools who had a graduation rate of 70 percent or better are: Ball State, Baylor, Boston College, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Clemson, Duke, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Marshall, Miami (FL), Mississippi State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Rice, South Carolina, Syracuse, Southern California, Southern Methodist, Tulane, Tulsa, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Wisconsin.