NCAA releases annual APR report
5/6/2009 12:00:00 PM | Athletics
The NCAA released its 2007-08 Academic Progress Rate (APR) report Wednesday afternoon and Sam Houston State posted marks above the national Division I average in six sports.
The Bearkats posted APR totals in the top 50 percent of Division I universities in women's volleyball (984), tennis (983), indoor track (973), outdoor track (972) and softball (971) and men's cross country (971).
Seven other sports scored above 925, the cut score for possible penalties. These included the men's sports of golf (952), outdoor track (939), football (937) and basketball (933) and women's sports soccer (971), cross country (970) and golf (967).
“Overall, we are pleased with our APR performance,” SHSU director of athletics Bobby Williams said. “The first three years of the program, all 16 of our sports did not receive any penalties. Recently, we have had to deal with three sports ? men's indoor track, baseball and women's basketball ? falling short.”
Sam Houston State has been a leader academically and athletically in the Southland Conference the past several years. During the past four seasons, the Bearkats have won three SLC Commissioner's Cup all-sports titles, nine Southland regular season championships, three SLC post-season tournament crowns and a league men's all-sports cup.
Each of those seasons, Sam Houston produced more Southland Commissioner's Academic honor roll members than any other league member and posted overall athletic grade point averages of 2.75 or higher including a department record 2.94 GPA in 2008.
“Indoor track and baseball are receiving historical penalties based on recruiting and retention mistakes a few years ago. Both sports improved from last year with baseball up eight points from 905 to 913 and indoor track up nine from 910 to 919,” Williams said. “The penalty for women's basketball is due to a change in coaching and recruiting philosophy and we are working through those issues.”
The APR total represents a sport's performance in eligibility and retention during the past four years.
An academic version of an RPI that rewards eligibility, retention and graduation, and penalizes academically under-performing teams, the APR, developed by the NCAA's Committee on Academic Performance as part the organization's move toward academic reform, offers a real-time snapshot of every team's academic performance at a given time.
The APR is calculated by allocating points for eligibility and retention -- the two factors that research identifies as the best indicators of graduation. Each player on a given roster earns a maximum of two points per term, one for being academically eligible and one for staying with the institution. A team's APR is the total points of a team's roster at a given time divided by the total points possible. The resulting figure, a decimal, is then multiplied by 1,000 for ease of reference.
Complete statistical data and a more detailed explanation of APR may be obtained through the NCAA's web site at www.ncaa.org.
