It's an exciting time to be a Notre Dame fan!
By now you should know that the football team is ranked first in the B-C-S poll...
But that's not all.
FOX28's Amanda Johnson found out that N-D stresses performance in the classroom too.These guys are number 1.
"cheering"
Both on the field...and off.
Associate Athletic Director John Heisler said, "We're not just here for athletics."
Saturday's win over Wake Forest put the Irish football team first place in the B-C-S...
Combine that with the team's high graduation success rate...
And the school is making history.
Heisler said, "For all those people who think you can't combine athletics at the highest level and academics at the highest level, I think this proves otherwise."
Out of the 120 schools at college's football's top level...
Notre Dame the first ever to be 1st in the B-C-S poll and have the highest graduation success rate...
It's an accomplishment that Tricia Bellia athletic representative says doesn't come easy...starting when a student applies for N-D.
NCAA faculty athletic representative Tricia Bellia said, "We're going to make sure we don't admit a student athlete that won't succeed here."
And once they're in...
Football players are required to be in good academic standing if they want to take the field.
Bellia said, "We have to have a commitment from the athletic department and coaching staff that they will emphasize the need for success in the classroom."
She says this could mean changing the football team's traveling schedule...
Since university policy only allows for three missed classes in a Monday-Wednesday-Friday sequence.
But the efforts have paid off...
Bellia said,"As long as the NCAA measure has been in place, we've been consistently very high."
