The latest batch of academic numbers supplied by the NCAA is encouraging: Of the 6,272 Division I teams, only 218 were sanctioned for poor classroom performance.
“There’s plenty of good news,” NCAA president Myles Brand said. “There has been measurable progress.”
However, the news isn’t all good for Kansas and Kansas State. KU is losing two football scholarships, and the K-State men’s basketball team will lose one.
The NCAA measures eligibility, retention and graduation of athletes. Teams below an academic progress rate (APR) of at least 925 in a four-year average, which roughly projects to a 60 percent graduation rate, are subject to penalties such as reduced scholarships.
The Jayhawks had two players leave in poor academic standing last year.
“Despite the loss of two scholarships, we are very pleased with the direction the program is taking,” Kansas associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said.
K-State, which has had three men’s basketball coaches in three years, can take the penalty in either of the next two years, and the Wildcats will take it in 2008-09.
“I think it’s safe to say coaching turnover impacts decisions of kids who are trying to determine if they want to stay, or even those who feel rejected by a new coach,” Kansas State associate athletic director Phil Hughes said.
“It’s all part of the landscape of men’s basketball across the country.”
All-America forward Michael Beasley, who ended his college career by signing with an agent after his freshman season, won’t hurt Kansas State’s APR.
A school official said Tuesday that Beasley completed his second semester by taking online courses.
Players who leave early for the professional ranks don’t count against a school’s APR, if they remain in good academic standing throughout the school year.
Football and baseball — in trouble when the NCAA adopted the APRfour years ago — have improved over that time.
But men’s basketball has not, posting the lowest average for any sport with an APR of 928. The NCAA will continue to look for ways to boost the numbers of the sport that supplies the organization with its greatest source of income — March Madness.
Coaching turnover is often cited as the primary reason for the low scores. When jobs turn over, players often transfer or are not retained by the new coach.
The NCAA can’t fix coaching changes. But it is working on a plan that would require sophomores and freshmen to attend summer school, putting them on a 3 1/2 -year graduation track.
“We’re going to study it more carefully over the next few months,” Brand said.
UMKC is losing .61 scholarship in softball.
But many Big 12 teams were cited for having an APR in the top 10 percent of their sport. Among them, the Kansas men’s basketball and men’s and women’s cross country teams, and seven Missouri teams: men’s golf and women’s basketball, golf, swimming, cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.
The average APR is 961, with women’s rowing having the highest for any team at 985.
Baseball’s APR improved by 12 points and football’s by 11 since the NCAA first started collecting data in 2003-2004.
“When we started four years ago, baseball and football were in serious trouble,” Brand said. “There has been great improvement on those sports.”
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