NCAA APR Capsules: UConn, Southern take hits in new APR reports
Glance at schools that missed NCAA cutline
The schools that failed to meet the NCAA's 925 cutline on the latest Academic Progress Rate report, which was released Tuesday:
Football, men's basketball and women's basketball
Jackson State
Prairie View A&M
Southern (La.)
Texas Southern
Football and men's basketball
Alabama-Birmingham
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Bethune-Cookman
Delaware State
Georgia Southern
Grambling State
Howard
Idaho State
Louisiana-Monroe
Mississippi Valley State
Missouri State
Morgan State
New Mexico State
Portland State
Savannah State
South Carolina State
Southeastern Louisiana
Tennessee State
Texas-El Paso
Men's and women's basketball
Cal State-Bakersfield
Coppin State
IUPUI
Jackson State
Norfolk State
Prairie View A&M
San Jose State
South Carolina-Upstate
Southern (La.)
Texas Southern
BCS conference schools to miss cutline
Arkansas, men's basketball (SEC)
Connecticut, men's basketball (Big East)
Georgia Tech, men's basketball (ACC)
Louisville, football (Big East)
LSU, men's basketball (SEC)
Maryland, football (ACC)
Southern California, men's basketball (Pac-10)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA has put Connecticut on notice — improve in the classroom or face tougher penalties.
The Huskies men's basketball team was one of six BCS teams sanctioned Tuesday for sub-par marks in the NCAA's annual Academic Progress Rates report. The Associated Press reported last week that UConn will lose two scholarships for the upcoming season because of the APR report.
And if the grades don't get better, the Huskies' punishment could get worse.
"We are all disappointed in our academic performance and going forward we are going to attack this in the only way I know how, and that is to work as hard as possible to get better every day," coach Jim Calhoun said in a statement. "I do know that over the past year, we have made improvements and are moving in the right direction."
To avoid losing more scholarships or practice time, UConn will have to prove it. And the Huskies weren't the only school getting hit Tuesday.
Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., became the first school to face postseason bans in two programs — men's basketball and football — because of academics.
The APR measures classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I team. Teams scoring below the 925 cutline in one year can face immediate penalties. Those scoring below 900 or with low scores for several years face tougher historical sanctions.
This year's data covers 2006-07 through 2009-10. A perfect score is 1,000.
The average APR number for all athletes jumped three points to 970 in the latest report. Baseball (959) and men's basketball players (945) each had a five-point increase while the football score (946) improved by two points.
But the improvement was tempered by two things — a record eight teams receiving postseason bans and the punishment of a prominent national champion that went before the NCAA infractions committee last year and now has seen a one-year drop from 930 to 893 in the classroom.
"It is disappointing to see that drop at UConn," said Emmert, who once served as Connecticut's chancellor. "We certainly hope it's a one-year drop."
Since postseason bans became part of the penalty structure in 2008, only four teams have received the punishment.
This year's group consists of men's basketball teams at Cal State-Northridge, Chicago State, Grambling, Louisiana-Monroe and Southern, and football teams at Idaho State, Southern and Jackson State, Walter Payton's alma mater.
No team has ever been given the harshest penalty, a one-year membership restriction.
The NCAA handed out 58 penalties this year to schools that have had consistently poor showings over more than one year. These harshest penalties — postseason bans, practice reductions or guaranteed scholarship cuts — affected only one BCS conference team: Arkansas, which will lose one scholarship in men's basketball.
Five other BCS teams will lose scholarships only if an equal number of academically ineligible players leave school. Football teams at Maryland and Louisville could lose up to three scholarships. Men's basketball teams at Georgia Tech and LSU could each lose one.
A seventh BCS team, Southern Cal men's basketball, fell below the cutline at 912, but was not penalized.
UConn has already said it will lose both its scholarships because two players have left the school in poor academic standing. The school posted the second-lowest score of any BCS team in the three major sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. Arkansas' men's basketball team had an 892. Butler, the two-time national runner-up, had a perfect 1,000.
UConn's score also prompted the NCAA to notify the school it was in danger of facing the harsher historical penalties if the APR number doesn't go up next year.
Walter Harrison, president at the University of Hartford and chairman of the NCAA's committee on academic performance, said he plans to meet with UConn's new president, Susan Herbst, soon and plans to discuss the classwork.
Emmert is willing to go a step further.
"In our office, we have routinely and would be willing again to send people to campuses to do things like best practices," he said. "We want to help them understand their relationship with the NCAA and what we can do to be helpful, and I'm sure they've got the culture there (at UConn) to respond appropriately."
Other details from the NCAA report:
— Historically black colleges and universities, including Southern, accounted for 29 of the 58 harshest penalties. Teams at more than 300 schools were measured in this year's APR, and only 24 of those were HBCUs.
— Four teams missed the cutline in the big three sports. They were Jackson State, Prairie View A&M, Southern and Texas Southern, all members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Nineteen schools had football and men's basketball teams fall below the cutline and 10 had both their men's and women's basketball teams miss the mark.
— Colorado, the only BCS school to face scholarship losses in football and men's basketball because of last year's APR scores, made the cut this time. The Buffaloes had a 929 in football and a 926 in men's basketball. Syracuse was the only other BCS school penalized in 2010. Its score improved from 912 to 928 in men's basketball.
— When combining the two penalty structures, 103 teams were penalized, down from 137 last year. Two years ago, the number was 177.
MEAC, SWAC take big hits in latest APR report
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — NCAA President Mark Emmert expects athletes at historically black colleges and universities to make the grade — and he's willing to help after seeing the results of the latest Academic Progress Rates.
The NCAA banned Jackson State and Southern of the Southwestern Athletic Conference from postseason play in football next season and did the same thing for Southern and Grambling in men's basketball, citing poor classroom performance by all three schools and a host of others in the SWAC and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences.
The SWAC does not get an automatic bid to the NCAA's FCS playoffs, but its own conference title game could be affected.
The NCAA released the penalties Tuesday. Southern became the first school to be banned from the postseason in two sports in the same year — football and men's basketball — because of academic performance.
"You're right that there are a number of historically black colleges and universities that have been penalized, especially through the postseason ban," Emmert said. "We are concerned about that, have met with those institutions to help them develop ways for improvement and to help provide resources to help them be successful."
The impact of the penalties could swing the balance of power in the SWAC and MEAC, both comprised of HBCUs, and both of which get automatic bids to the NCAA basketball tourneys, too.
The numbers are striking: The NCAA evaluated more than 340 schools for the APR report but only 24 of them — about 7 percent of the total — are considered historically black colleges or universities.
Yet of the 58 harshest penalties handed out this year, fully half went to teams in these two conferences.
SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp told NCAA.org that turnover in school staff — including school presidents — has hurt academic performance of athletes.
Whatever the explanation, the SWAC must now decide whether to let Jackson State and Southern play in its football championship should they advance, and whether to allow Southern and Grambling to compete in the men's basketball tournament. If either were to win the championship, the league could lose its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"We don't have a firm timeline," assistant commissioner for communications Tom Galbraith said. "Our conference meetings aren't until the first week of June, and I wouldn't expect anything finalized before that time."
Southern University released a statement from the office of Chancellor Kofi Lomotey saying that the latest APR report "sends a clear message that we must and will improve; and the process has already begun."
The statement said that Southern officials have spent several months meeting with NCAA representatives, educators and others to work on strategies to "quickly address and correct some behaviors that have landed Southern University in this unenviable position."
The plan includes a system to track athletes' classroom performance and a greater emphasis on academic counseling.
The 10-member SWAC has a long and storied football tradition thanks in large part to three powerhouse programs — Grambling, Jackson State and Southern.
Coach Eddie Robinson spent 56 seasons as Grambling's coach and sent a long list of players to the NFL. The most notable may have been quarterback Doug Williams, the former Super Bowl who is coaching his alma mater for the second time.
Jackson State, in Mississippi, produced one of the NFL's greatest players, running back Walter Payton, along with Hall of Famers Jackie Slater and Lem Barney. And Southern's alums include another NFL Hall of Famer, Mel Blount, as well as Philadelphia Eagles record-setting receiver Harold Carmichael and Arizona Cardinals defensive back Aeneas Williams.
But it's not just the bans that could hurt the competition in either league.
Texas Southern, which played for last year's SWAC football title, must give up nearly 15 football scholarships, while Jackson State lost half a dozen. Both of those schools will have their practice time reduced, too.
The 13-member MEAC, is taking a similar hit, minus the bans.
Delaware State is losing nine football scholarships, North Carolina A&T is losing three and both schools must contend with new practice limitations, too.
The punishments could be just as debilitating — or more — in basketball.
Coppin State will lose four scholarships, while Norfolk State is losing two. Those two schools, along with Morgan State, also face practice reductions.
Also, Mississippi Valley State and Southern will each lose two scholarships in basketball. Grambling will have one scholarship taken away.
In all, five schools in each league face penalties.
Norfolk State athletics director Marty L. Miller said the Spartans' APR performance was hurt by the loss of three players to transfers or other reasons.
"We made every effort to assist them to remain in school, but could not resolve the reasons for their departure," Miller said. "We will continue to address the transfer issue in order to eliminate the penalty status for the next reporting period."
What can be done?
Walter Harrison, president at the University of Hartford, said the NCAA's committee on academic performance is debating whether the supplementary support fund, which provides $1 million in grants to low-resource schools, is working the way it should or whether the NCAA can do more.
To Emmert, though, the bottom line is simple. Every school can improve in the classroom.
"You worry about the impact it (penalties) can have on any of those conferences, but the important thing is to promote the success of our student-athletes and that's our desire to promote academic success," he said. "It is also the case that we do need to be cognizant of the missions of HBCUs, which isn't the same as all of our institutions. It's asking them to complete their missions."
-- Michael Marot
Poor academics costs Arkansas one scholarship
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long expected a poor academic performance from the men's basketball team. It's one of the reasons he decided to make a coaching change in March.
Arkansas will lose one basketball scholarship as punishment for having a low score in the NCAA's latest Academic Progress Report, released Tuesday. School officials expect to be without the scholarship during the 2012-13 season since the NCAA does not require a school to rescind a scholarship from a current player or recruit who has already signed.
"While we are disappointed that we have been assigned a historical penalty in our men's basketball program, I am pleased with the direction we are moving in correcting APR issues of the past," Long said.
The APR measures the classroom performance of student-athletes at Division I schools, with 925 being the benchmark score over a four-year span. The Arkansas men's basketball team finished with an 892 in the latest report.
The men's basketball team was Arkansas' only sports to post an APR score below 925. The football team scored 937.
Long said APR issues played a factor in his decision to fire John Pelphrey after four seasons as Arkansas' coach. Mounting losses and low home attendance also contributed to the coaching change.
"It's part of the overall leadership of the program, and I think that we moved to make a change because of those things," Long said Monday. "And this was one of the things that was a factor."
Long said he informed new coach Mike Anderson of the APR issues during the hiring process. The situation didn't deter Anderson from leaving Missouri after five seasons to return to the school where he won a national championship as an assistant under Nolan Richardson in 1994.
"While it is unfortunate that we are receiving an historic APR penalty, I was aware that our men's basketball team had APR issues when I accepted this position," Anderson said in a statement. "My staff and I are committed to working very hard to make sure our players are doing the right things both on and off the court in an effort to insure that APR penalties do not occur in the future.
The Razorbacks could have lost four hours of weekly practice time, but the NCAA decided against that following an appeal by Arkansas last month.
Arkansas compliance director Jon Fagg said part of the school's argument against stiffer penalties was that the basketball team couldn't have done anything in 2009 or last year to raise its APR score above 925. Because of a low score of 755 from 2007-08, the best the Razorbacks could have gotten with back-to-back perfect scores was a 923.
"(NCAA officials) agreed with part of our rational, but not our entire rational," Fagg said.
Fagg said he doesn't anticipate the basketball team scoring above a 925 on next year's APR report. However, Long said he doesn't anticipate it costing the program another scholarship and the program will soon rise above the benchmark.
Georgia Tech loses basketball scholarship
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Tech's basketball team has been penalized with the loss of a scholarship due to academic performance for the second time in three years.
Georgia Tech's score of 915 out of 1000 on the NCAA's Academic Progress Report released Tuesday was below the 925 cutoff point. Georgia Tech said it anticipated it would not make the APR cutoff and reduced its scholarships by one in the 2010-11 season.
The school said it will have its full 13 scholarships for its first season with new coach Brian Gregory in 2011-12.
The APR is a point system based on scholarship athletes remaining eligible and in school. It serves as a predictor of graduation rates.
Three Georgia Tech teams — golf and men's and women's cross country — had perfect scores of 1,000. The score for the Georgia Tech football team was 966.
"A goal is for us to raise the bar higher and higher every year," said Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich. "Our student-athletes, coaches and academic staff have done a good job of raising that bar. While we will not rest on our laurels, we are pleased to see tangible improvement in what we are doing academically."
Georgia did not have any teams penalized. Georgia football's 976 APR score tied for second-best in the Southeastern Conference, one point behind Vanderbilt.
The Georgia basketball team's score was 946. Men's golf earned a perfect 1,000.
Georgia teams ranked among the top three in the SEC in eight sports.
"These scores are indicative of a great deal of effort and hard work by our student-athletes," said Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity. "Our coaches and academic counseling staff have done an excellent job of supporting our student-athletes and we'll continue those efforts to keep improving and performing at a high level."
Kennesaw State's basketball team lost two scholarships and was hit with the additional loss of one practice day per week after scoring 874 to fall below 925 for the fourth straight year.
New Kennesaw State athletic director Vaughn Williams said academics are being emphasized under first-year coach Lewis Preston. The school's other 15 teams scored above the 925 standard.
"I can assure you that KSU athletics believes that academics and athletics go hand in hand, and we will do everything in our power to give every student-athlete the opportunity and support to reach their fullest potential," Williams said.
Georgia Southern scored below the 925 in football (921) and was penalized with the loss of 4.47 scholarships. It is the sixth straight year the team has lost at least three scholarships, according to NCAA records.
Georgia Southern's basketball team's score was 905 but the team did not suffer a scholarship loss. Georgia Southern's cross country and swimming teams had 1,000 scores.
Chattanooga football posts passing APR score
Chattanooga's football team posted a passing Academic Progress Rate average in the NCAA's annual report released Tuesday and for the first time in six seasons will face no scholarship reductions or other punishments.
The Mocs' struggles with academics and APR penalties has not only inhibited them on the field but also brought a negative perception of the program, which made it difficult to recruit, Chattanooga athletics director Rick Hart said.
"It didn't represent who we are and our values and commitment to the institution's academics," Hart said. "It was as much the perception that the penalties created as the penalties themselves."
The APR measures classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I team, with this year's report covering 2006-07 through the 2009-10 season. The top score is 1,000, and teams scoring below the 925 cutline can face penalties.
The Mocs posted a 988 for the 2009-10 season which brought their four-year average up exactly to the 925 benchmark.
Chattanooga had been forced to reduce its number of scholarships for five seasons in a row and was among the first teams in the nation to receive a postseason ban two years ago because of the team's poor APR. Had the Mocs' problems continued, they would have faced losing their Division I membership.
The program was hampered by especially bad scores in the first few seasons the NCAA began tracking APR. Hart said Chattanooga suffered from inadequate academic support facilities and staff and a lack of training about academic standards for coaches employees.
A more serious focus on academics in recent seasons helped improved the Mocs' APR.
"I don't think we spent the amount of time that was necessary educating our coaches," Hart said. "That was as big a piece of it as anything, to help them understand this was an important expectation and a significant portion of how they would be evaluated."
Chattanooga's women's soccer program was the school's only team not to reach 925 for its four-year average, though the team did score 984 for the 2009-10 season. It's four-year APR average is 889, and the team will be punished with a reduction in practice time.
Across Tennessee, only two other programs were punished for failing APR scores. The Tennessee-Martin men's basketball program was docked one scholarship after scoring a 923 four-year average, and the Tennessee-Martin women's basketball program also lost a scholarship after logging a 914 average.
Tennessee State's volleyball program was put on notice for possible future penalties after scoring 892.
-- Beth Rucker
Indiana basketball makes big jump in APR scores
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana's men's basketball team has produced its first perfect score on the NCAA's Academic Progress Rates.
The score, released Tuesday by the NCAA, shows dramatic academic improvement since Tom Crean took over as coach. In 2007-08, the Hoosiers' score dropped to 811 after the mass exodus following coach Kelvin Sampson's departure.
Athletes receive one point each semester that they stay in school and another point each semester that they are academically eligible. The cumulative point total is then calculated for each team and sent to the NCAA.
A perfect score is 1,000. And things have changed since Crean's arrival.
Last year, the Hoosiers produced a record-high one-year score of 975 — a 164-point in Crean's first season as head coach.
This year, Indiana perfected its mark, hitting 1,000. That put the team's four-year average at 929 — just above the cutline.
"I want to congratulate Coach Tom Crean for providing the leadership necessary to raising the program's standards with regard to the APR," Indiana athletics director Fred Glass said in a statement. "This is a tremendous step for the program and an accomplishment that all of Hoosier Nation should be proud of."
Three basketball teams in Indiana missed the cutline.
The men's and women's basketball teams at IUPUI and Ball State all had scores below 900.
But only the Jaguars women's team was penalized. It could lose two scholarships and was given a public notification that it would face the tougher historical sanctions if it falls short again next year.
IUPUI was one of four women's teams in the nation hit with an immediate penalty.
Butler, the two-time runner-up in men's basketball, also had a 1,000.
Meanwhile, in Bloomington, the Hoosiers were celebrating more than just basketball.
Four teams — baseball, men's golf, men's soccer and women's soccer — finished in the top 10 percent of their sport and received public recognition from the NCAA last week.
But it was the perfect score in basketball that got the attention of administrators.
"Our student-athletes, coaches and our academics staff have worked diligently to take advantage of the outstanding educational opportunities that exist at Indiana University," Glass said.
CU football, men's hoops teams improve APR scores
BOULDER, Colo. — (AP) — The Colorado Buffaloes have improved their performance in the classroom a year after losing five scholarships in football and another in men's hoops for falling short in the annual Academic Progress Report.
The APR measures classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I squad. Teams that score below the 925 cutline may face penalties. This year's data covers 2006-07 through 2009-10.
Colorado's football team increased its most recent APR score to 958, moving its four-year total from 920 to 929. The squad also implemented an academic improvement plan, which started under Dan Hawkins and will be carried out by new coach Jon Embree.
The basketball squad had a perfect score of 1,000. The academic boost comes on the heels of the Buffs heading into the newly formed Pac-12 next season.
Four ULM teams sanctioned for low APR scores
MONROE, La. (AP) — The NCAA is banning Lousiana-Monroe's men's basketball team from postseason play for one season and reducing scholarships for the football and track and field teams because of their academic performance rates.
The men's basketball squad, which had already lost two scholarships because of historically low APR scores, will lose a third and also have to reduce practice time.
The football team is losing seven scholarships. The men's indoor and outdoor track teams are each losing 1.1 scholarships, while the women's indoor and outdoor teams each are being penalized .45 of a scholarship.
ULM Athletics Director Bobby Staub says a plan is already in place to address the academic performance of those teams requiring improvement.
LSU men's basketball falls short on NCAA APR score
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU's men's basketball team has fallen short of an academic benchmark required to avoid penalties from the NCAA.
However, the team will not be affected by any sanctions going forward because it already proactively punished itself with the loss of a scholarship during the past academic year.
In order to avoid NCAA sanctions, teams must have Academic Progress Rates of 925 or higher for a four-year period. LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva says the basketball program's score of 905 results in part from a change in coaches.
Several players left school early after John Brady was fired and replaced by Trent Johnson in 2008. Men's basketball was the only team of 20 at LSU that scored below the 925 mark.
WVU: Varsity teams exceed NCAA academic minimum
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University says all of its varsity sports teams have exceeded the NCAA's minimum academic progress requirements.
WVU says NCAA data released Tuesday shows its teams have a combined academic progress rate score of 974. All teams exceeded 925 points, the minimum to avoid having scholarships taken away by the NCAA. The score is based on eligibility and retention of student athletes over a four-year period. The NCAA uses the score to assess academic success.
WVU says its cross country, rifle, women's soccer, rowing, men's soccer and tennis teams recorded perfect scores. Men's basketball recorded a score of 995, while the football team managed 962. The university's combined score is up six points from 2010 and 18 points from three years ago.
