In many cases, Vanderbilt’s high academic standards are a barrier between the Commodores and gridiron success. Tough admissions standards and difficult classwork can weed out interested prospects, giving head coach Derek Mason an obstacle -- and an opportunity -- on the recruiting trail.
Those standards mean Mason has to bring some of the nation’s top students into the program. On Wednesday, that hard work paid off. The NCAA announced Vanderbilt had one of the Football Bowl Subdivision’s top four scores on its annual Academic Progress Rate (APR).
The APR is a measure of how many student-athletes on a given team are both still in school and on pace to graduate.