For the first time in this history of the Tar Heel football program, the Tar Heels have earned a prestigious academic award.
In a release earlier today, it was revealed that the football program has received the American Football Coaches Association’s 2023 Academic Achievement Award. This award was handed out to Carolina and twelve other programs after they recorded the highest graduation rate for members of the 2016 through 2022 classes.
According to the release, this year's award marks the 12th time the NCAA's Graduation Success Rate (GSR) formula has been used to select the winner. The GSR is based on a six-year graduation window for student-athletes and holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and non-scholarship students at schools that do not offer athletics aid. Under GSR calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. These outgoing transfers are passed to the receiving institution's GSR cohort.
Academics is something that Mack Brown has stressed heavily since returning to Chapel Hill and this just shows that focus is paying off for the student athletes.