Navy Sports

GreatAmerican
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:12:38 +0000

Two weeks after winning the NCAA tournament, Kansas was among 33 Division I men’s basketball teams ‹ and more than 700 men’s and women’s teams across all sports ‹ recognized by the NCAA on Thursday for high academic scores. The teams posted four-year academic progress rates (APRs) in the top 10% in their respective sports.

Besides KU and North Carolina, only six other major conference men’s basketball teams made the cut: Duke, Illinois, Oregon, Vanderbilt, Villanova and Wake Forest.

Only seven major conference football teams were cited: Duke, Rice, Rutgers, Stanford, Air Force, Army and Navy.

The NCAA compiles academic rates for every sports team at every Division I school, tracking whether scholarship athletes a) remain at the school and b) stay academically eligible and ultimately graduate. Points are awarded, player by player, and the NCAA has determined teams should hit 92.5% of their possible total ‹ an APR of 925. That, the association says, projects roughly a 60% graduation rate.

Low-scoring schools are subject to penalties starting at scholarship cuts and escalating to practice restrictions and postseason bans. As many as 70 men’s basketball, 40 baseball and 28 football teams could be hit with scholarship sanctions when the fourth annual set of APRs is released May 6.