Georgia Tech and the APR

Ok, I wasn't sure what to make of this article from CBS Sports but it appears that someone took the time to crunch numbers to identify the top and bottom academic progress schools for college football. Normally, this kind of stuff does little for me. If you read my last post (and you better have!), I was more jacked up about incoming freshmen being the size of Herman Munster than the idea of them being even halfway intelligent.

So after reading the article (READ IT!), I realized that I should appreciate Georgia Tech on more than just one front. Oh sure, football games are a blast, but there are far more important things!

For example, in the CBS Sports articles, Georgia Tech ranks as 4th in Academic Progress Rankings. Now these rankings are from 2003 - 2010 so we can thank both Paul Johnson AND Chan Gailey for getting their players to be good scholars as well as good athletes.

I also want to throw out a congrats to Clemson's Dabo Swinney. He is the top coach in the APR rankings. We all know that Clemson and Tech are not the closest of friends but I think we should extend a high five over the aisle and congratulate Clemson on being a quality academic program.

The ACC also wins for the conference with the best APR ranking. I would imagine having the number 1 and 4 coaches would help with that but it is impressive nonetheless.

Oh sure, there are a lot of people who think the APR is meaningless, kind of like preseason rankings, but who cares. If schools are doing their job and producing good scholars who happen to be good football players, then they are to be celebrated. Chances are if you don't like the APR, your team didn't get a good score.