Report card not adding up

Matt Schuman, (Bio) mschuman@greeleytribune.com
May 9, 2008

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Numbers don't lie, but the University of Northern Colorado athletic department insists the numbers in the NCAA's recently released Division I Academic Progress Rate (ARP) report don't tell the whole story.

The APR is a ratings system used to measure academic performance by NCAA teams and its student athletes. If a team's APR falls below the 925 bench mark, teams can be sanctioned with penalties that include the loss of scholarships. An APR of 925 roughly projects to a 60 percent graduation success rate.

The reported showed that Northern Colorado rated below the 925 benchmark in all the men's sports except golf (963), tennis (932) and wrestling (945).

However, the report is based on a four-year period ending with the 2006-07 academic year and not the two years the Bears were required to submit for the report while in transition to Division I.

UNC spokesperson Jimmy Henderson, the assistant athletic director for academic success, said the numbers don't accurately reflect UNC's standing because it doesn't account fro the squad size adjustment that Bears are allowed. The adjustment helps ensure that low-performing teams are accurately identified given the smaller-than-intended data set (i.e. less than four years).

Henderson said with the squad size adjustment, all of UNC's sports are above the 925 rate. However, Henderson said the school can't release the squad size adjustment scores since it has not been published by the NCAA.

"It really doesn't bring concern to us right now because I think our sports are on the track they need to be," Henderson said. "It is just with only the two years of data. It doesn't take into account the whole snapshot."

UNC appears to be headed the right direction academically. The school had 66 fall and winter sports athletes named academic all-Big Sky Conference selections this past season. Henderson said that 57 percent of UNC's student-athletes had a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

UNC's wrestling team was also named to the Division I all-Academic and Individual all-Academic wrestling teams by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). UNC had the 18th best GPA among Division I teams with a 2.963 GPA. Ryan Johnson was named to the all-Academic Team and Blayze Bahe, Reece Hopkin and Ed Matthews were named to the Commissioner's Honor Roll.

To keep on track and avoid future penalties in two years, Henderson said Northern Colorado is taking a proactive approach by working with "a diverse group" on campus to put together academic success plans for UNC's student-athletes.

"And the campus has been very responsive into helping us build this group to help go forward," Henderson said.

That is good news for UNC since the four-year report showed that UNC had an APR of 900 in men's basketball, a 916 in football and a 918 in baseball. The men's outdoor track team had the lowest APR at 896.

The average APR is 961 out of a perfect 1,000. The four-year average in football, basketball and baseball is 925.

The best news was on the women's side. All the women's sports were above the 925 standard on the four-year report. The women's tennis team scored a perfect 1,000 and was on the NCAA's public recognition award list for its academic achievement.

A list of the Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers for the University of Northern Colorado based on a reports released by the NCAA. The report is based on a four-year period ending with the 2006-07 academic year. If a team's APR falls below the 925 bench mark, teams can be sanctioned with penalties that include the loss of scholarships. The numbers do not reflect the squad size adjustment UNC is allowed.

Men's Sports

Baseball 918

Basketball 900

Football 916

Golf 963

Tennis 932

Indoor Track 900

Outdoor Track 896

Wrestling 945

Women's Sports

Basketball 941

Cross Country 975

Golf 957

Soccer 949

Softball 973

Swimming 966

Tennis 1,000 (perfect score)

Indoor track 981

Outdoor track 934

Volleyball 936