UA posts its highest APR score

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville posted a record score of 984.2 for its multi-year average in the Academic Progress Rate (APR).

All 19 Arkansas sports surpassed the NCAA multi-year benchmark score of 930 for the sixth consecutive year, each of them by at least 24 points, and 13 programs surpassed the benchmark by 42 points or more. The multi-year scoring represented athletes who enrolled between the 2013-14 and the 2016-17 school years.

Nine UA sports posted perfect 1,000 single-year APR scores: women's cross country, golf, gymnastics, softball, tennis and volleyball as well as men's basketball, cross country and tennis.

"As demonstrated by the rates in our most recent APR report, Razorback student-athletes are achieving record-breaking academic success on the path to graduation," Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. "All 19 of our sport programs are well above the national benchmark and have shown sustained improvement."

The women's basketball team fell below the single-year benchmark with a score of 909, down from the 1,000 of the last reporting period, but the sport has a strong multi-year score of 984.

The baseball and women's track and field programs experienced significant one-year declines, with baseball posting a 957 (990 last year) and women's track at 944 (974).

The men's basketball team posted a program-record multi-year score of 985, well up from the low point of 886 in the 2008-09 report which cost the program one scholarship.

The football team continued its climb, with a single-year score of 988 which is tied with Vanderbilt for best in the SEC. Football's multi-year score of 977 is tied for fourth in the SEC.

In the APR calculations, each athlete receiving athletic-related financial aid earns one point for staying in school and one point for being academically eligible each semester, for a total of four possible points per athlete, per school year. A team's total points are divided by points possible and then multiplied by 1,000 to equal the team's APR score.

Scores can be negatively affected by athletes that drop out or transfer and are not in good academic standing. Programs are not penalized for athletes who opt to pursue a professional career, so long as they are in good academic standing when they are enrolled in classes.

APR scores for the state's other Division I programs were released Wednesday.

Arkansas State University exceeded 930 for all of its 14 sports with multi-year scores of 969 for football, 940 for men's basketball and 968 for baseball.

Women's cross country, golf and tennis had 1,000 multi-year scorers for ASU.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock had each of its 12 sports exceed 930, and the men's basketball team had a multi-year score of 980 with its women's team at 986.

Men's golf was the Trojans' highest-scoring team at 993.

All 14 sports at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff exceeded 930, and the football team had a multi-year score of 950, men's basketball 939 and baseball 944.

Its women's cross country, women's soccer, women's tennis and women's track and field each scored 1,ooo, which gave UAPB the most programs in the state's five Division I colleges that scored 1,000.

The University of Central Arkansas had the only multi-uear score below 930 among the state's five Division colleges, with the Bears' men's basketball team at 919. That was an improvement from 880 last year and 873 two years ago.

UCA's other 15 sports exceeded 930, with football at 962, baseball at 963 and softball at 991.

The Bears' first-year women's beach volleyball program and women's tennis each led the scores with 1,000.

Matt Jones of WholeHogSports contributed information for this article.

Sports on 05/24/2018

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