OK, so we know that Alabama vs Texas will compete for the national title... and that Michigan State will take on Texas Tech on January 2 AFTER the Rose Bowl. But, how well do the players on these teams fare when you consider them on path toward graduation?

The ES wuz curious and looked at the numbers for ALL the bowl teams (all 68 of them), considering the Academic Percentage Rate (APR) compiled by the NCAA each year. MSU is ranked 57th out of 68 teams with an APR of 931 (the benchmark is 925, which equates to a 50% graduation rate, and below which teams are susceptible to penalties).

FYI - the dismissal of Winston and Jenrette will bring these numbers down for MSU and depending on the progress of others (and other potential dismissals or departures) could lead to potential of the Spartans numbers dropping below the 925 threshold and forced to create an academic improvement plan. One other important thing: just because players are closer to graduation, doesn't mean they are learning anything... there is no measure for that.

#	School	APR
1	Stanford	984
2	Air Force	983
3	Rutgers	980
4	Navy	978
5	Miami	977
6	Georgia	976
7	Penn State	976
8	Northwestern	973
9	Cal	970
10	BC	970
11	Ohio State	968
12	Boise St	966
13	Florida	963
14	TCU	962
15	Central Florida	960
16	LSU	960
17	Georgia Tech	957
18	Southern Cal	956
19	Clemson	955
20	Alabama	955
21	Utah	954
22	Wisconsin	953
23	Oklahoma	952
24	UConn	951
25	Missouri	951
26	Nebraska	950
27	Tennessee	949
28	Auburn	949
29	Ohio	949
30	Fresno State	948
31	UCLA	948
32	Kentucky	948
33	Northern Illinois	947
34	Cincinnati	947
35	SMU	947
36	UNC	947
37	Texas A&M	946
38	Iowa	946
39	Nevada	945
40	MTSU	945
41	Troy	945
42	Southern Miss	944
43	Pittsburgh	944
44	Houston	942
45	BYU	942
46	Marshall	939
47	WVU	939
48	Oklahoma St	939
49	Texas	939
50	Wyoming	939
51	Iowa State	935
52	TTU	935
53	Oregon	935
54	VTU	932
55	Florida St	932
56	East Carolina	932
57	Michigan State	931
58	Oregon St	930
59	CMU	930
60	South Carolina	929
61	Arkansas	927
62	Arizona	924
63	BGSU	920
64	Minnesota	915
65	Mississippi	910
66	South Florida	909
67	Idaho	905
68	Temple	891