The APR Scores Provide A View Into The Academic Progress of Our Student-Athletes

This week, the NCAA released the Academic Progress Rate data for all Division I institutions. The NCAA now has three years of data in this new system for measuring academic progress of individual sports teams. The system is designed to change behavior of certain programs by putting penalties in place. For the third year, no Towson teams were penalized in the report.

In the APR report, every student-athlete on athletics aid in a specific program has the opportunity to earn two points each semester – one point for eligibility and one point for retention or graduation. The APR score is based on the percentage of points earned. For example, a program that earns 95.6 percent of the possible points is given an APR score of 956.

The news from the report was encouraging nationally. The percentage of programs that received penalties declined from 3.6 percent to 3.3 percent. Football and baseball, the two sports with the most issues nationally in the first two years, both improved. The average APR score nationally was approximately 960

At Towson, 18 of our 19 programs scored above the NCAA “cut score” of 925. Volleyball, which has a 1000 APR over the past three years, was recognized by the NCAA because its score was in the top 10 percent nationally in its respective sport.  Indoor track (992), outdoor track (992) and softball (987) were in the top 20 percent nationally.

In addition to those four programs, three men’s programs and the eight remaining women’s programs were above the national average. Those programs included men’s lacrosse (967), men’s swimming (965), men’s soccer (962), women’s basketball (975), women’s cross country (990), field hockey (974), gymnastics (980), women’s lacrosse (987), women’s soccer (988), women’s swimming (992) and women’s tennis (987).

Of the remaining four programs, baseball and football were both under the national average for all teams, but did well compared to other baseball and football programs. With an APR score of 958, the football program’s score was in the top 30 percent in the country for football programs. The baseball score (958) was in the top 40 percent in the country.

Men’s golf was above the NCAA cut score with a 937 score. With an APR score of 917, men’s basketball was below the 925 cut score for the third year, but remains within the statistical confidence boundary with the squad size adjustment, so no penalties were applied. Towson’s men’s basketball APR has improved each of the three years of the study, from 885 in the first year, to 902 in the second year to the current 917.

The basketball program has scored well in the eligibility category, but not as strong in retention, which was amplified by the coaching change three years ago.

Last summer, the Academic Services staff prepared a plan to insure that the men’s basketball program would meet the cut score by the fourth year. The two 2006 seniors (Cantrell Fletcher and Lawrence Hamm) that did not graduate last year have completed requirements for graduation this spring and will pick up APR points for the program. In addition, five of the six 2007 seniors are on track to graduate by the end of the summer term. The sixth student could graduate, but plans to return on his own to complete a double major, adding an economics major to his completed business administration program. At this point, it looks like the APR score for the basketball program will be above the 925 cut score after the 2006-07 data is tallied.

The APR Report is good news for Towson. The academic achievement of our student-athletes is one of the best strengths of our program. In the latest federal graduation report, our student-athletes graduate at a rate 13 percent better than the student body (69%/56%). This APR report is further confirmation that our coaches, academic services staff and faculty contribute to an environment that encourages our student-athletes to achieve academically.

You can take a look at the link  to our scores and share in the pride. With academic success as a core value at Towson, we will find it much easier to continue to build something special here. Thanks for being part of it.