The Iowa football team’s graduation rate is the eighth-best of the bowl-bound schools in the country, according to a release.

Kirk Ferentz’s team is one of only nine to score 80 percent or better on the NCAA Graduation Success Rate measurement; the Hawkeyes tallied 83 percent.

"This ranking is a compliment to our student-athletes, coaching staff, academic support staff, and our faculty and staff on the UI campus," Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said in a release.

Iowa as a whole posted an 86 percent rate, a measurement that includes the movement of transferring student-athletes and also considers midyear enrollees. This year’s scores are based on the four classes that entered school from 2001-02 through 2004-05.

Five women’s teams — basketball, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, and softball — tallied perfect scores of 100. The women’s swimming and diving (95) and rowing (93) squads weren’t far behind.

The Hawkeye men were led by the baseball team’s 96, the best score in program history. The men’s gymnastics (88), tennis (86), football, and cross-country/track and field (81) teams followed.

— by Seth Roberts