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Baseball receives NCAA recognition for academics |
| By
Paul Helgren |
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May 13, 2008
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The NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) figures last week, and The University of Toledo received very impressive scores. In all, 13 of 15 UT sports finished well above the NCAA’s established “cut point” of 925.
The UT baseball team received an NCAA recognition award for finishing among the top 10 percent of Division I schools in its sport. The baseball team has an APR of 978, 40 points above the national average of 938 for Division I baseball programs.
“I’m proud of our players’ accomplishments in the classroom,” said Head Baseball Coach Cory Mee. “It’s a credit to their hard work and taking pride in their academics. Recognition like this reflects well on the players and on the program.”
APR is a gauge of every team’s academic performance at a given point in time. Points are awarded on a semester-by-semester basis for eligibility, retention and graduation of scholarship student-athletes. A score of 1,000 is considered perfect. Sports that fail to reach the 925 “cut point” can be penalized with the loss of scholarships. The APR data released is a cumulative figure taken from the 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years.
Three Rocket sports — men’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball — received perfect 1,000 scores for the 2006-07 school year.
UT Athletic Director Mike O’Brien said the NCAA’s APR report is another indicator of the Rockets’ excellent efforts in the classroom. In the most recent semester (Fall ‘07), UT student-athletes earned a collective grade point average of 3.003, the fourth-highest GPA for the department since it began compiling GPA data in 1993. Also, 54 percent (184 of 340) of UT student-athletes achieved a 3.0 grade point average or better for the 2007 fall semester, the eighth consecutive semester in which at least half of Rocket student-athletes earned a 3.0+ GPA. Grades for the spring semester are expected this week.
“The APR scores of our sports programs is an indication of our commitment to academics,” O’Brien said. “Many of our teams rank among the best in the country, while others have shown tremendous improvement. I especially want to congratulate Cory Mee and the baseball program for receiving special recognition by the NCAA.”
O’Brien added that an increased budget for tutoring and for summer school has had a beneficial effect on UT’s APR scores. He also noted that the two sports that did not make the 925 “cut point” — football and men’s cross country — continued to show improvement. Football moved its cumulative APR from 885 to 892. Men’s cross country improved its APR from 860 to 888.
As a result of its improvement, the football program will not be assessed any historical penalties, though it was assessed contemporaneous penalties for the 2007-08 school year. The Rockets were limited to 79 athletic scholarships out of a possible 85 last year, and 22 out of a possible 25 initial scholarships for the 2007 recruiting class.
Men’s cross country, with an APR of 888, did receive a “historical” penalty of “public notice,” but did not incur any contemporaneous penalties because no student-athletes left the program in deficient academic standing.
The APR is one of two principle academic measuring sticks the NCAA uses to assess the academic performance of member schools. Earlier this year, the NCAA released its Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figures, with UT scoring an impressive GSR of 79 percent for the entire department, which is two points above the national average of 77 percent.
2006-07 UT Academic Progress Rate
Sport APR# 2006-07 APR
Baseball 978* 992
Men’s Basketball 970 884
Men’s Cross Country 888 949
Football 892 909
Men’s Golf 991 1,000
Men’s Tennis 952 975
Women’s Basketball 939 944
Women’s Cross Country 954 929
Women’s Golf 960 969
Women’s Soccer 984 980
Softball 946 986
Women’s Swimming 962 977
Women’s Tennis 992 1,000
Women’s Track 941 955
Women’s Volleyball 985 1,000
NCAA “Cut Point” 925
# Data from academic years 2003-04 through 2006-07
* Ranked in the Top 10 percent in the nation
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