Kentucky Basketball – A Cut Above the APR
By MonsterMash
Today, the Academic Progress Report was released by the NCAA. That’s APR for short. What is it and why does it matter?
In 1990, the Student Right to Know act made it mandatory that Universities released their graduation rates in an effort to hold academic institutions accountable for their athletes education and ensure the schools focused on learning just as much as they sometimes do in sport.
As expected, those graduation rates didn’t look so good once published. It was found that nearly 51% of football players failed to graduate within 6 years of enrollment. Basketball players were even worse with a 41% graduation rate within 6 years.
Thus, the APR was introduced. The APR is a composite score of all athletes at a University and on individual teams on a term-by-term basis. It is calculated as follows (per the NCAA)
"Each student-athlete receiving athletically related financial aid earns one retention point for staying in school and one eligibility point for being academically eligible. A team’s total points are divided by the points possible and then multiplied by one thousand to equal the team’s Academic Progress Rate score. Example: A Division I Football Bowl Subdivision team awards the full complement of 85 grants-in-aid. If 80 student-athletes remain in school and academically eligible, three remain in school but are academically ineligible and two drop out academically ineligible, the team earns 163 of 170 possible points for that term. Divide 163 by 170 and multiply by 1,000 to determine that the team’s Academic Progress Rate for that term is 959"
Why is it important? Each team is required to meet a minimum APR of 925 (of a possible 1000). If a school fails to meet that goal, the team can have up to 10% of their scholarships revoked.
If a team fails to meet a minimum of 900 APR for consecutive years more sanctions are added but are not limited to:
- Year 1: A public letter of warning
- Year 2: Scholarship and practice time restrictions
- Year 3: Postseason ineligibility
- Year 4: Removal of the entire athletic program from being eligible for NCAA competition
What you must know is that these scores are on a rolling 4 year basis. So, when a school has a player that fails to graduate and the player leaves early for the NBA without finishing the school year, the player has failed to meet two requirements and places a double whammy on a team for 4 years, leaving little room for error from players in the same class and subsequent classes. Take Jim Boeheim and Syracuse, who lost Johnny Flynn and others early to the NBA draft and the draft training, their penalty, the loss of two scholarships removed in June of 2010.
New reforms were passed and will begin to take effect in the 2012-2013 school year. The APR will be raised to 930 and the school will be required to raise their APR to 930 by the 2015-2016 post season.
Where does Kentucky fit into this mix?
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2004 – 2005 | 922 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2005 – 2006 | 916 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2006 – 2007 | 941 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2007 – 2008 | 979 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2008 – 2009 | 954 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2009 – 2010 | 974 | ||
Men’s Basketball | University of Kentucky | KY | 2010 – 2011 | 963 |
Not only is John Calipari succeeding with this team on the court, but off. This years score, 30 points above the 2015 minimums, puts Kentucky’s basketball team 4 years ahead of many schools that need to reach that 930 APR and around the 50% marker in the SEC.