Bronco Football Team in Top-10 Percent for APR Scores

BroncoSports: Bronco Football Team in Top-10 Percent for APR Scores

The Broncos were ranked No. 6 in the final USA Today Coaches' Poll and No. 8 in the final Associated Press Poll.

Clemson was the only other team to receive academic recognition for its football program from the NCAA and also be nationally-ranked in the final 2011 polls.  The Tigers were No. 22 in both polls. The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship.  The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation, providing a measure of each team's academic performance.

Today's announcement by the NCAA adds to the academic achievements the Bronco football team has earned recently.

The past two years Boise State posted the second highest academic score among teams that played in a postseason bowl game.  The Broncos were second to Penn State this past season with a score of 107, which is based on the Higher Ed Watch's Academic Formula.  Boise State was second to Stanford in 2010.

Boise State also posted the top APR team score during its final five years as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.  Next week's report will mark the first for the Broncos as a member of the Mountain West.

Individually, this past season offensive tackle Nate Potter became the first Bronco in more than 30 years to earn first-team Academic All-America honors.  Potter, who received his bachelor's degree in history in May of 2011, and was taking a full load of graduate classes this past fall during his final season playing for the Broncos, graduated with a 3.702 grade-point average.