The Colorado State men’s basketball program lost two scholarships last season because of poor NCAA Academic Progress Report numbers, it was revealed Tuesday.
CSU officials saw the negative numbers coming a year ago and contacted the NCAA to discuss an immediate penalty plan. With incoming coach Tim Miles at the beginning of the building process as the new men’s basketball hire, Colorado State chose to take the scholarship reduction then.
Colorado State’s hit came from losing 18 players from 2003-07. The academic progress rating system assigns positive point values each semester for players who are in school in good academic standing, but subtracts points for those who are not in good standing or leave school. CSU took its largest hit from student-athletes leaving the university.
“We let them know what our plan of action was going to be,” said CSU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk, who spoke via phone from the Mountain West Conference meetings in Arizona. “I think they always welcome when the school approaches them rather than them making a phone call.”
At this point, CSU has its full allotment of 13 scholarships for the upcoming recruiting season.
In order to avoid future penalties, CSU hired a new academic director, Mel Sanders, and hired an assistant who works directly with men’s basketball. Kowalczyk is also high on Miles’ track record of turning out players who remain in good academic standing and graduate.
“We took that into account,” Kowalczyk said of hiring Miles.
According to Kowalczyk, the program isn’t out of the woods yet. CSU officials are bracing themselves for a possible future hit because of the academic performance of current athletes, but will know more after summer school sessions end. If internal calculations display another below-standard performance, Kowalczyk said they may opt to take another immediate scholarship cut.
“We’ll know to some degree after grades come out,” Kowalczyk said.
Meanwhile, Wyoming is going to lose a men’s basketball scholarship as well, as it finished below the minimum standard. Wyoming also lost a scholarship for the 2006-07 season because of the departure of Steve Levin, who left after the 2005-06 season in bad academic standing. Anytime that happens, the university loses a scholarship.
The University of Colorado men’s basketball team was rated below standard for the third time in the last four years. That puts the program one step from scholarship reductions or on-court practice time limits.
According to CU athletic director Mike Bohn, the university has already put together an improvement plan, and “we are all confident in our men’s basketball leadership implementing our academic plan,” he said in a statement.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
