INDIANAPOLIS—The NCAA is honoring
more than 900 Division I sports teams for their high marks academically.
The Association announced that 909
teams have earned Public Recognition Awards, based on their most recent
multi-year Academic Progress Rates. These awards are given each year to teams
scoring in the top 10 percent in each sport with their APRs.
WAC schools had the following eight teams honored:
Boise State Football
Hawai‘i Women's Cross Country
Louisiana Tech Men's Golf
Louisiana Tech Women's Bowling
Nevada Men's Golf
New Mexico State Men's Golf
New Mexico State Women's Golf
Utah State Women's Cross Country
Through its innovative APR, which
provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement, the NCAA tracks the
classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team.
Full APR scores for all teams,
including penalties for low-performing teams, will be released May 24.
NCAA President Mark Emmert said
top-performing teams this year posted APR scores ranging from 977 to a perfect
1,000. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on
the number of perfect scores.
“Most student-athletes excel at
balancing their academic and athletics commitments, yet each year there are
those who perform at extraordinary levels,” Emmert said. “By achieving the
highest levels of academic success as a team, these young men and women truly
embody what it means to be a successful NCAA student-athlete.”
Four national champions from the
2009-10 season are included in this year’s award list: Duke University men’s
basketball; Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan campus, women’s
bowling; University of Michigan men’s gymnastics; and University of Denver
women’s skiing.
By measuring eligibility and
retention each semester or quarter, the APR provides a clear picture of the
academic culture in each sport, Emmert said. The most recent APRs are
multi-year rates based on scores from the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10
academic years.
The 909 teams publicly recognized
this year for high achievement represent 14 percent of the 6,385 eligible
Division I teams. The list includes 525 women’s teams and 384 men’s or mixed
squads.
For the first time with its public
recognition awards, the NCAA is separating the sport of football by its bowl
and championship subdivisions.
A total of 239 institutions, out of
335 Division I colleges and universities, placed at least one team on the top
APR list. Another 11 schools that offer athletics in more than one division,
out of 52 overall within the NCAA, placed Division I teams on the list as well.
For the sixth consecutive year,
Yale University had the most teams (23) recognized, followed by Brown
University (22) and Dartmouth College (21). By conference, the Ivy Group had
the most number of teams honored (135), followed by the Patriot League (82), the
Big East Conference (77), the Atlantic Coast Conference (61) and the Atlantic
10 (56).
Last year, 841 teams were
recognized.
In the six years of the NCAA’s
academic reform program, 1,992 different teams have received Public Recognition
Awards, representing 31 percent of eligible sports teams during that
time. Of that total, 260 teams have received Public Recognition Awards
each of the six years of the program.