As Duke football has improved its level of play on the field to the tune of four straight bowl appearances, it has also risen in the rankings in the classroom.
The Blue Devils had the highest Academic Progress Rate in the nation in football according to data released Wednesday by the NCAA, and nine Duke teams had perfect APR scores of 1,000.
Duke’s gridiron squad beat out schools like Wisconsin, Northwestern and Vanderbilt with its score of 995 for the 2011-15 period. Men’s and women’s cross country, women’s fencing, men’s and women’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s lacrosse, volleyball and women’s track and field were the teams that posted perfect scores.
Baseball and wrestling also led the ACC with scores of 993 and 977, respectively, in the APR metric, which tracks players’ performance in the classroom and measures their progress toward graduation. The Blue Devils’ score of 995 in men’s basketball was the third-highest in the conference.
Teams must earn a four-year APR of 930 to compete in postseason play, and every Blue Devil program is well above that threshold, scoring at least 977 points. Every team also scored above the national average in its respective sport.
Last week, 15 Duke teams earned Public Recognition awards from the NCAA for finishing in the top 10 percent in their respective sports in APR.
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