Nov. 29, 2011
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By Brian Ormiston
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) recognized UCF football Tuesday for being one of just 17 institutions for graduating at least 90 percent of its members of the freshman student-athlete class of 2004, which was UCF's first year with head coach George O'Leary at the helm of the Knights' program.
The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is based on a six-year graduation window for student-athletes, and was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
UCF joins the following schools which had a GSR of 90 percent or better: Air Force, Army, Boise State, Boston College, Duke, Florida, Iowa, Miami (Fla.), Miami (Ohio), Navy, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rice and Stanford.
The Knights and the Rice Owls were the only two institutions from Conference USA among the elite group of 17 schools. Meanwhile, C-USA led the nation with seven programs which recorded a GSR of at least 75 percent from the 2004 class.
In October, UCF football earned a 79 percent overall GSR to finish 12 points higher than the national average. It also was a nine-point increase from its 70 percent in last year's overall GSR and is an all-time high under O'Leary.