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Academic hammer set to
fall
By The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — At least
one team at half the nation's Division I schools could lose scholarships
next year because of poor academic performance, according to a
preliminary report released Monday by the NCAA.
Of the 5,720 teams at 328
Division I schools, about 410 teams risk penalties.
"We hope the behavior
changes and the number of teams will actually go down over time," NCAA
president Myles Brand said in a conference call.
Most of the scholarship
losses, which would be for one year, are expected to come in football,
baseball and men's basketball. Those were the only sports with averages
below a 925-point cutline at which penalties would be assessed. Baseball
teams averaged 922, while football and men's basketball were at 923.
The most prominent
programs below 700 were the men's basketball teams at Fresno State and
Baylor. Fresno State received a 611, while Baylor scored 647 — a figure
affected by the transfer of several players after the 2003 shooting
death of Patrick Dennehy.
But there immediately were
concerns with the scores.
The Houston women's cross
country team and the Eastern Michigan men's indoor track team both
scored zero, which NCAA officials said might have been because there was
only one athlete represented.
Maryland-Baltimore County
athletic director Charles Brown said the NCAA miscalculated the score
for its men's track team, which scored 600. Brown said he contacted the
NCAA to point out the calculation only included three indoor track
athletes — not the 27 that participate in both indoor and outdoor track.
"It's very embarrassing
and it hurts our recruiting," Brown said. "It's extremely upsetting that
the NCAA released something to the public when they know there are some
flaws."
The new calculation gives
athletes one point each semester for remaining eligible and another
point each semester for staying in school. The points for each team then
are divided by the highest possible total of points a team could score.
That percentage is assessed a point total, with 1,000 being the highest.
Schools scoring below 925, or 92.5 percent, could face penalties.
The NCAA will use a
statistical adjustment, similar to the margin of error used in
presidential polls, to prevent statistical anomalies for teams with few
athletes.
Corrections to the scores
are expected to be announced in April. The NCAA also will institute a
yet-to-be determined waiver process to avoid penalties.
Schools are expected to be
notified by December of the final results, which also include figures
from the 2004-05 school year. Programs must take the penalties as early
as possible and those that are far below the cutline now could take the
scholarship loss next fall.
The 2003-04 data only
gives schools an indication of how they are doing.
Under the new format, NCAA
officials hope to improve both academic eligibility and retention of
athletes. Stronger penalties, including postseason bans for consistently
poor academic performance, are expected to be enforced by the fall of
2008.
Page updated:
02/23/07 10:42 AM
©2005
Bonesville.net. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Compiled
from
ECU Athletics and staff reports.
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