Baylor football pairs on-field success with Big 12-leading academic score

It’s been a good 12 months for head coach Art Briles’ Baylor football program: a third-straight bowl appearance (and a blowout victory there), a new stadium going up along the Brazos, one alum named NFL rookie of the year, another named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

But why stop there? Most recently, it was announced that Baylor football tops the Big 12 Conference in Academic Progress Rate (APR), a measurement used by the NCAA to track student-athlete academic progress. Last season’s squad featured 17 Academic All-Big 12 selections, including quarterback Nick Florence, who was also named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America first team.

Florence was one of four Baylor Academic All-Americans this year, joining baseball’s Kolt Browder and soccer’s Dana Larsen and Lisa Sliwinski. Over the past four years, Baylor has produced 18 Academic All-Americans, the most of any Big 12 school.

Sic ’em, Baylor football and Baylor athletics!