For the ninth year in a row, Mississippi State's football team again has earned honorable mention status from the American Football Coaches Association for graduating 70 percent or more of its student-athletes.

Mississippi State is one of only five schools in the nation to have qualified for the honor in each of the last nine seasons, and one of only two public universities to have done so. The other universities are Duke, Notre Dame, Rice, and Virginia.

The award continues MSU's academic excellence in football. Since 1994, State also has led the Southeastern Conference in the total number of football student-athletes named Academic all-SEC with 105.