NCAA Releases Three-Year Figures for Academic Progress Rate

May 2, 2007

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Nineteen teams at the University of Maryland posted multiyear Academic Progress Rates (APR) above the national average for Division I public institutions based on data released Wednesday by the NCAA.

Those teams were led by the gymnastics and women's cross country teams, which were noted for public recognition last week, as their perfect APRs of 1,000 were among the top 10 percent of programs in those sports nationally.

Maryland had 20 programs at or above the 950 mark in the multiyear rates, which take into account three years of data. APR data submitted for the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years are included in the figures released on Wednesday.

The APR is the index developed by the NCAA to provide, by team, a real-time snapshot of student-athlete retention and eligibility performance of all Division I institutions. Also allowed are bonus points for student-athletes returning to graduate. The APR is part of a larger system package, the NCAA Academic Performance Program (APP), which was mandated by the NCAA Board of Directors to improve the academic performance of athletic teams.

In calculating the APR, each student-athlete who receives athletic aid receives one point for continuing as a full-time student or graduating, and one point for remaining eligible to compete each semester. The maximum number of points a student-athlete can earn in an academic year is four. A team's APR is the total number of points earned divided by the maximum number of points possible. This APR number is then multiplied by 1,000. (For example, a team which receives 94 percent of all possible points would have a team APR of 940.)

The APR has established a benchmark, called the cut score, under which contemporaneous penalties will be imposed in the form of scholarship reductions for those teams which fall below the cut score. However, no penalties are imposed if a team falls below the cut score if it still falls in a range known as the "confidence interval," a statistical measure which takes into consideration the squad size of teams. The cut score was established at 925 and equates to an approximate 50 percent graduation rate.

The APP did not assess penalties in the first year of the program, waiting instead until more data was available for each team. The NCAA will eventually base penalties on a team's four-year rolling APR average.

MARYLAND'S ACADEMIC PROGRESS RATE RESULTS

All intercollegiate varsity teams tracked by the NCAA that are sponsored by the University of Maryland were above the cut score in the multiyear rate, with the exception of wrestling and men's basketball. The NCAA does not track figures for competitive cheer.

The wrestling and men's basketball teams, however, were not subject to contemporaneous penalties due to squad-size adjustments. The upper confidence boundaries in both those sports were above the cut score of 925, meaning they will not receive penalties this year. Squad-size adjustments will be eliminated when the fourth year of APR data is collected, provided the team's multiyear cohort includes 30 or more student-athletes.

Maryland's wrestling team posted an APR of 909, while the men's basketball multiyear rate is 908. Factoring in the upper confidence boundaries, those rates were 942 and 946, respectively.

The national average for all Division I public institutions for men's basketball is 917, which is below the cut score. Four of the six seniors in the Maryland men's basketball program are currently on track to graduate.

Although wrestling had its non-adjusted multiyear rate below the cut score, it still had 20 student-athletes, more than half the squad, post grade-point averages of 3.0 or better in the Spring 2006 semester.

Maryland's football multiyear rate was 944. The football team was in the 60th percentile within Division I football teams, and Maryland's rate was well above the Division I public institution average, which fell below the cut score at 922.

Baseball was the third sport tracked in which the rate for Division I public institutions fell below the cut score at 923. Maryland's baseball team had a multiyear APR of 963.

APR FACTS

RATE CALCULATION

The APR is computed by assigning eligibility (1 point) and continuing as a full-time student or graduating (1 point) to each student-athlete on athletics aid for each academic term. The squad APR is the total number of points earned divided by the maximum number of points possible. The APR number is then multiplied by 1,000 for ease of reference.

For example, if the team calculation is determined to be .925, the APR would be 925. APR is based on a term-by-term measurement and will eventually be based on a four-year rolling average.

Basically, points are earned based on the answers to two questions: a) Is a student-athlete eligible for the next term or did they graduate? (1 point); b) Is the student-athlete returning? (1 point)

Teams lose points if student-athletes leave early to turn pro, transfer, drop out or dip below the minimum GPA to remain eligible.

Teams receive bonus points if student-athletes who have left school return at a later time to earn their degree.

THE SYSTEM

Teams with a three-year APR score (2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06) below 925 were subject to contemporaneous penalties starting in Fall 2006.

Once subject to such a penalty (APR plus squad-size adjustment is below 925), the maximum team financial aid limit will be reduced by the value of total countable aid awarded to the specific student-athletes who did not earn eligibility and were not retained the following semester.

Contemporaneous penalties that can be assessed to one team in one year are subject to a 10 percent maximum of the respective team's NCAA financial-aid limit. Over time, the contemporaneous penalty structure has been supplemented with a historical structure, designed to be more punitive in nature.

Historical penalties will be in addition to contemporaneous penalties and are designed to punish habitual offenders. Historical penalties may include postseason bans, scholarship losses, etc. They will be based on four-year rolling averages.

Squad-size adjustments will be eliminated when the fourth year of APR data is collected, provided the team's cohort includes 30 or more student-athletes.

MARYLAND'S ACADEMIC INITIATIVES

Over the last decade, the University of Maryland Athletics Department has placed a significant priority on upgrading its Academic Support and Career Development Unit (ASCDU) for student-athletes.

With an annual budget of more than $1.2 million, the unit includes 14 full-time staff members and two graduate assistants. The unit employs over 60 tutors in a wide variety of disciplines, and over 9,000 tutorial sessions were conducted in the 2005-06 academic year for student-athletes on all 27 Maryland varsity teams.

These initiatives are designed to help student-athletes graduate at levels comparable to those of the general undergraduate population.

In each of the last two years, Maryland posted school-record graduation rates, with the percentage of student-athletes receiving financial aid graduating at a 76 percent rate for those who entered in the 1999-2000 cohort.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Q. What is the difference between this system and tracking of graduation rates?

Academic Progress Rate is meant to be a real-time snapshot of a program's success in terms of student-athlete retention and eligibility. Graduation rates are six-year compilations of those student-athletes in a particular freshman class who receive athletics aid upon entering the institution and who graduate within that six-year window.

The NCAA has developed a new graduation-rate formula - the Graduation Success Rate or GSR. This new graduation-rate index is meant to give a more accurate look at an institution's success rate by taking into account those student-athletes who transfer in or out of an institution, as opposed to the federal rate calculations in which transfers count against the institution.

The APR and graduation-rate formulas also handle transfers differently. Student-athletes who transfer from a school count against a team's federal graduation rate, even if they were in good standing at the time of their transfer or if they eventually earn a degree. The APR gives credit for those student-athletes who were eligible or in good academic standing at the time of their transfer.

Q. Has this changed how Maryland will monitor academic progress and retention of student-athletes?

The athletics department will continue our long-standing commitment of providing support to our student-athletes. The registrar's office tracks academic outcomes for student-athletes and the results are reviewed by the university's Faculty Athletics Representative and the university's Athletic Council, a group of faculty and staff.

MARYLAND'S MULTIYEAR APR SCORES

	University of Maryland	Average APR for Div. I
Sport	Team APR	Public Institutions
Baseball	963	923
Men's Basketball	908*	917
Men's Cross Country	941	952
Football	944	922
Men's Golf	958	956
Men's Lacrosse	972	967
Men's Soccer	947	942
Men's Swimming & Diving	950	960
Men's Tennis	943	951
Men's Indoor Track & Field	963	942
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	963	941
Wrestling	909*	930
Women's Basketball	951	954
Women's Cross Country	1,000	965
Field Hockey	991	979
Women's Golf	980	969
Women's Gymnastics	1,000	978
Women's Lacrosse	993	980
Women's Soccer	973	965
Softball	978	958
Women's Swimming & Diving	974	975
Women's Tennis	978	965
Women's Indoor Track & Field	991	958
Women's Outdoor Track & Field	991	959
Women's Volleyball	967	964
Women's Water Polo	986	964

* - not subject to contemporaneous penalties due to squad-size adjustment

NCAA Releases Three-Year Figures for Academic Progress Rate

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