April 22, 2009
The NCAA announced today it is honoring two athletic teams at the University of San Diego as part of its public recognition awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores. Torero softball is being recognized for the second straight year, while men's basketball makes the list for the first time.
All told the NCAA honored 712 Division I sports teams with public recognition awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate score. These teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards are part of the broad Division I academic reform effort.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000, said NCAA President Myles Brand.
"Congratulations to these teams and their student-athletes for success in the classroom," Brand said. "They are setting a great example for their peers and future student-athletes, as well."
The teams recognized this year for high achievement represent 11.4 percent of the approximately 6,272 Division I teams. The list includes 401 women's teams and 311 men's or mixed squads. A total of 192 institutions, out of 329 Division I colleges and universities, placed at least one team on the top APR list.
Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized. There are fewer awards this year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores. In some sports, teams had to maintain a perfect score over the four-year period in order to be recognized.
By sport, women's tennis featured the most teams (46), followed by women's volleyball (41) and women's golf (39). Men's sports with the highest number of teams were basketball and cross country (both with 33) and golf (32). This is the first year that basketball led men's sports. The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years.
