FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ status with the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate, which caused the Razorbacks’ men’s basketball team to lose a scholarship last season, has bounced back.
Arkansas’ 19 athletic teams posted an average multi-year score of 970.3 in the latest figures released Wednesday, the highest rate for the Razorbacks since the NCAA introduced the APR in 2003-2004.
Men’s basketball, with a multi-year score of 894, was the only sport on campus with a rate below the benchmark of 925 in the latest figures, which include data for a four-year period concluding with the 2010-2011 academic year. Arkansas’ men’s basketball team, which posted a single-year score of 957 in the latest report, regained its lost scholarship and did not face any penalties based on its multi-year score because, according to the NCAA report, the team demonstrated significant academic improvement.
“Working alongside our administration and academic staff, we have developed an academic approach that challenges our student-athletes to make consistent improvement and advance toward a degree,” Mike Anderson, Arkansas’ men’s basketball coach, said through a university release.
The APR measures the eligibility and retention rate of student-athletes and is an indicator of progress toward earning a degree. Every athlete on campus is eligible to receive two points for every semester, one for being retained and one for being academically eligible.
Athletic teams are graded by the number of points accrued divided by the number of points available, which means Arkansas’ multi-year score actually translates to 97 percent.
“I am proud of the continued academic progress we are making in exceeding APR benchmarks and setting record multi-year and single year rates for our program,” Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said in the release. Institutions can face penalties only if their score drops below the “cut rate” of 925, which is being phased upward to 930 over the next three years.
The Razorbacks’ single year average for all sports was 978.5, the best in school history. Fifteen of the 19 sports improved or maintained their APR from the last report, including six sports that showed a jump of nine points or more. Women’s tennis made the largest one-year jump, moving up 35 points to 1,000.
“Our academic performance continues to improve, and that’s a real tribute to ourstaff, our coaches and our student-athletes,” said Jon Fagg, a senior associate athletic director who oversees compliance issues. “Everybody continues to maintain the focus on graduation.”
Arkansas’ football team scored a 935 for the 2010-2011 academic year, just below its multi-year score of 936. That score ranks between the 30th and 40th percentile nationally and is 10th among the current SEC teams, 12th with incoming schools Missouri and Texas A&M included.
“Football is such a large group and [its APR score] doesn’t move around a lot,” said Fagg, who added that he doesn’t anticipate football’s score falling below 930.
Arkansas’ highest-achieving sports were men’s tennis (which has a 1,000 multi-year score), gymnastics (1,000), women’s swimming (997), men’s golf (994), women’s golf (993) and women’s soccer (991). All of those sports achieved a perfect 1,000 score for the 2010-2011 period, except for women’s swimming (990) and soccer (989). The women’s tennis team also hit 1,000 for the most recent data and posted a 976 multiyear score.
Sports, Pages 19 on 06/21/2012