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Academic hammer falls on
hoops
By
Al Myatt
�2006 Bonesville.net
East Carolina has lost two basketball
scholarships as a result of academic shortcomings and transfers during the
coaching era of Bill Herrion.
The Pirates are playing with 12 scholarship
players this season � one below the NCAA limit of 13 � according to sports
media relations director Tom McClellan.
ECU also will have to play with just 12
scholarship players in one of the next two seasons, according to McClellan.
"East Carolina University supports the NCAA
APR initiative to improve the academic performance of student-athletes and
has taken steps to address the concerns on our campus," ECU athletics
director Terry Holland said in a statement. "Our new coaching staff has
adopted a "hands-on" approach to monitoring study halls as well as setting
the expectations for class attendance and performance. We have seen a
remarkable improvement in the academic performance of the individual team
members but know that this is a 24/7/365 responsibility that requires
continuing attention."
Holland, who was in Texas on Wednesday, could
not be reached for further comment.
The report, developed by the NCAA as an
assessment tool for a team's academic performance, tracks retention and
eligibility status rather than graduation rates over a two-year period
beginning in the fall of 2003 and ending in the spring of 2005. Eighteen of
East Carolina's 19 athletic programs are in compliance with current APR
requirements, according to an ECU release.
According to the NCAA, 99 Division I sports
teams at 65 colleges and universities � or less than 2 percent of 6,112
Division I sports teams nationwide � will lose scholarships for poor
scholastic performance. No Conference USA or ACC football teams were
penalized.
"You've got to bring in kids that not only
want to make it to the NFL, but also want to graduate and get their degree,"
first-year Middle Tennessee coach and former ECU offensive coordinator Rick
Stockstill told ESPN. "If a kid just wants to graduate and not make it to
the NFL, I'm not interested. If he wants the NFL and not the degree, I'm not
interested. You have to do a good job in evaluating. We're getting out of
the Prop 48 business."
ECU was the only C-USA or ACC basketball
program to be sanctioned. Tulane is reportedly still in the process of
determining if it will face APR penalties.
First-year New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus
told ESPN.com that it wasn't fair that a new coach � like ECU's Ricky Stokes
� gets penalized for past transgressions. The Aggies will lose two
scholarships, a decision Theus said NMSU appealed to no avail.
For a team to lose a scholarship under the
"contemporaneous penalty" portion of academic reform, a student-athlete must
have failed academically and left the school; and the team's APR must be
below 925 (out of 1000).
The APR is calculated by measuring the
academic eligibility and retention of student-athletes by team each term.
Based on current data, an APR of 925 calculates to an approximate graduation
rate of 60 percent.
The NCAA has limited penalties to a maximum of
10 percent of the scholarships although tougher measures are in store.
Next year, the NCAA will send warning letters
to schools whose teams have continually fared poorly in academics. In
2007-08, those schools could face the loss of scholarships and in 2008-09,
the penalties could include a ban from postseason tournaments, according to
espn.com.
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This page updated
02/23/07 12:29 AM.
�2006 All rights rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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