What: One of the most significant pieces of legislation in recent NCAA history. It essentially penalizes schools for not graduating at least 50 percent of its athletes over time.
Fifty percent equates to an APR score of 925. Programs falling below 925 must get above it by fall 2005 or face a set of penalties that could ultimately lead to expulsion from the NCAA. There is an appeals and waiver process.
Why: The NCAA decided it was high time to put real teeth in penalizing substandard graduation rates. Since the mid-1990s, the NCAA had been forced to use federal graduation rates that were thought to be misleading.
The APR is real-time. For example, Ohio State football's score of 870 (55 points below 925) is a damning indicator how academically poor the program has performed in the past year under Jim Tressel. The NCAA called the APR "the blueprint for active review of teams' academic performance."
How: Get out your calculators to figure your favorite team's APR. The NCAA provided this example ...
Schools earn "points" for each player eligible at the beginning and end of each semester. For example, a player who is eligible at the beginning and end of each semester during a given academic year earns four "points" (4 for 4). If a player is eligible and is retained after the first semester but does not return for the following fall and is ruled ineligible, his number would be 2 for 4.
Division I basketball teams are allowed a maximum of 13 scholarships. If 11 players at State U. achieve a 4 for 4 and two achieve a 2 for 4 (0 for 2 second term, they were not eligible and were not retained), this team lost four points total based on the performance of these two student-athletes.
The maximum number of points possible would be 52 (13 scholarships x 4 points).
(11 players x 4 for 4 = 44) + (2 players x 2 for 4 = 4) = 48 points. 48/52 equals .923 x 1000 = 923.
State U. would then be below the APR cutoff of 925.
Penalties: Schools that fall below 925 (or refigured cut line in the future) are subject to losing scholarships as soon as late 2005. If schools lose players in the most recent semester who would have been academically ineligible had they returned, those scholarships are not allowed to be replaced.
Teams that are above the 925 APR do not lose that scholarship. Only 10 percent of any team's scholarships can be lost. Translated to football, that means the I-A limit of 85 scholarships can be trimmed by a max of nine to 76.
These penalties eventually will be based on a four-year rolling average. They include loss of scholarships, postseason bans and possible expulsion from the NCAA. The thinking is that the threat of initial penalties will be enough of an incentive for a school to get its academic house in order.
- There were no penalties handed out on Monday. Instead, NCAA officials hoped to put schools "on notice" that, had the APR been in full effect, they would have been penalized.
- Approximately 21 percent of all Division I teams (1,198 out of approximately 5,720) are below 925. Of those, about 410, at first glance, are risking penalties after allowances schools were granted. Approximately 48 percent of Division I football programs (113 out of 233) and 47 percent of Division I men's basketball programs (154 of 326) fell below 925.
- Fifty-one percent of all Division I schools have at least one team subject to penalty. Most of those teams are in football, baseball and men's basketball. Those three sports' average APR falls below 925.
- Women's field hockey, lacrosse and rowing posted the highest APR (981). That compares to Division I-A men's basketball's 906.
- Sixty schools have at least three teams subject to penalty. Sixteen have five or more.
