NCAA gives UW sports a passing grade
While 123 colleges felt the first bite of the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate system, the University of Wisconsin passed with flying colors.
All 23 sports sanctioned by the school exceeded the benchmark score of 925 -- equivalent to a 60 percent graduation rate -- in statistics compiled during the 2006-07 school year, and the men's cross country team posted a perfect 1,000 score.
Other top achievers included the volleyball and women's hockey teams (995), men's and women's tennis (992), women's soccer (988), women's rowing (987) and men's soccer (982).
Football posted a score of 944, which ranked in the 60th-to-70th percentile among other Bowl Subdivision programs, while men's basketball was at 938 (50th-to-60th) and women's basketball had a 968 (50th-60th).
Of the 6,272 teams competing at the Division I level, only 218 will be sanctioned for poor performance, according a release from the NCAA. Meanwhile, 721 programs were publicly recognized last month for APRs in the top 10 percent of each sport.
"Overall, there is much to be encouraged about with the latest data," NCAA president Myles Brand said. "When we started four years ago, baseball and football were in serious trouble. There has been great improvement in both of those sports. We are not out of the woods, however. There are individual institutions that have seen steady decline in APR over the last four years. The situation is dire for them."
Teams that score below 925 and have a student leave school academically ineligible can lose up to 10 percent of their scholarships. Known as immediate penalties, these scholarships can be lost each year and not awarded until the following year. Teams can also be subject to historical penalties for poor academic performance over time.
Of the 218 teams with sanctions this year, 113 will receive immediate penalties, while 35 will receive both an immediate penalty and a public warning for historically low performance, the first sanction under the historical penalty structure. An additional 44 teams will receive the historical public warning only, and 26 will face a historically based penalty restricting scholarships and practice.
Among Big Ten Conference schools, only one program was affected. Purdue men's basketball is subject to the loss of one scholarship under the immediate penalty structure.
The overall APR of Division I student-athletes rose slightly, the latest data show, with increases in both eligibility and retention and a decrease in the number of student-athletes leaving school while academically ineligible, known as 0-for-2s.
The average APR for all Division I student-athletes is 961, according to the latest data. The average APR for male student-athletes is 951, while the average for female student-athletes is 969.
File photo
The UW volleyball team posted a 995 score in the Academic Progress Rate scores released Tuesday.
