At the same time Colorado is looking to make a good impression with a top academic conference, the Pac-10, the Buffaloes’ athletic program incurred a black eye Wednesday when the NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Report data. The University of Colorado was penalized with a reduction of five scholarships in football and one in men’s basketball as sanctions for falling short of APR minimum standards.
However, the CU football and men’s basketball programs anticipated the scholarship reductions and already have absorbed the penalties by reducing their number of scholarships during the 2009-10 academic year, according to CU.
CU football coach Dan Hawkins and new men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle, therefore, will have a full complement of scholarships to offer during the upcoming recruiting cycle.
The APR is based on a four-year average of classroom performance, with Wednesday’s score based on the 2005-06 through 2008-09 academic year. Colorado attained an APR score of 920 in football and 897 in basketball. Any score below 900 is the benchmark for severe penalties. Scores below 925 fail to meet another cutline, leading to sanctions.
Air Force’s football team had a 988 ranking, the second-highest among football teams. Rutgers led with a score of 992.
CU and Syracuse were the only members of the six major power conferences to lose scholarships for “immediate penalties” in the major sports of football and men’s and women’s basketball. Syracuse could lose up to two scholarships in men’s basketball.
“The APR score for football is of great concern to both our academic and athletic leadership,” CU chancellor Phil Di Stefano said in a news release. “It represents a challenge we are working to meet through our APR improvement plan, new academic support staff in athletics, and renewed focus in recruiting and engagement with our student athletes. By working together, guided by these strategies, I believe we can begin to reverse this APR trend.”
CU officials said they are working on an “academic improvement plan” for football, as required by the NCAA, with a target of completion by Aug. 1.
CU faculty representative David Clough said one key for CU is to make sure incoming recruits can handle the academics.
“Look very carefully at the kind of student-athlete that is being signed and brought into the program . . . in terms of their academic credentials or any character issues that might end up causing problems,” he said. “In the end, you’re trying to do a better job of what you might call ‘the fit’ between the student-athlete and the institution.
“You generally will have some academic risks among the athletes coming in, but how many? Generally, as you go to more and more academic risks, you’re going to get a higher probability that some of them won’t be successful,” Clough said. “But at the same time, you don’t want to eliminate those individuals because it’s truly gratifying when you get an academic success story from a student-athlete that comes to us with very poor preparation because of their background.”
Clough said negative publicity such as this hurts CU, but APR isn’t the whole story.
“We’d like to do better; we want to do better,” Clough said. “But the APR does not paint the total academic performance of a squad. The APR allows you to sort of paint the outside of the picture. And then things like the (football) team GPA, which is quite encouraging (over 2.5 for five of past six semesters), allow you to paint the center of the picture.”
Hawkins declined to comment on the report.
The newly released APR data indicated that Colorado State University was penalized with a reduction of one scholarship in men’s basketball as a “historical penalty” for failing to satisfy a previously waived sanction. A total of 26 schools were sanctioned for historical penalties.
“The APR issue is not a quick fix,” said CSU men’s basketball coach Tim Miles. “It was practically inevitable that this would happen, but our scores over the past two years have been good, and they will continue to be good. The long-term solution is to recruit student-athletes who value education, and that is what we will do.”
Among other area major colleges, the University of Denver, Air Force, Northern Colorado and Wyoming each met APR standards in all sports. CU’s 14 other sports have been deemed to be in good academic standing for each of the APR’s six years of existence.
The Pac-10, meanwhile, is considering expansion by adding as many as six Big 12 teams, including Colorado. No official invitations have yet been made. With Nebraska’s apparent imminent departure from the Big 12 for the Big 10, other dominoes could soon fall as far as the Big 12 breaking up.
The APR for Colorado men’s basketball for 2008-09 was 955, according to CU, but the four-year average of 897 warranted a penalty. The school reported that the football program recorded a 931 APR for 2008-09.
The CU football and men’s basketball programs have been plagued by relatively high attrition during recent years, which contributes to a lower APR. Student-athletes who leave a program without being in good academic standing will reduce a program’s APR. Schools can earn a “delayed graduation point” when a former student returns to school and graduates.
The APR report-card system was instituted in 2004. It is based upon the eligibility, graduation and retention of student-athletes who are on scholarship. Student-athletes accrue zero, one or two points per semester, depending on whether they are in good academic standing, are on schedule progressing toward their degree and are enrolled for the subsequent term.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
Academic Progress Report
The APR is billed as a real-time academic measure of every Division I team. Each athlete receives one point per semester for remaining academically eligible and another point each semester for remaining at that school or graduating. A mathematical formula is then used to calculate a final team score, with 1,000 points being perfect. Teams falling below 925 can face conditional scholarship losses.
