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News Nuggets, 12.06.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Report knocks academics of bowl-bound teams

ORLANDO — This year's bowl-bound college football teams are struggling to meet the NCAA's new academic standards, with 41 percent falling below minimum requirements and almost half lacking a 50 percent graduation rate, according to a survey released Monday.

The 56 Division 1-A football teams headed to bowl games have a lingering problem of too many student-athletes failing to complete their studies, said Richard Lapchick, the University of Central Florida professor who authored the annual report.

``The key is admitting students who are qualified to be in that school,'' said Lapchick, who heads the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF.

This is the first year Lapchick has used the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, known as APR, to measure the bowl-bound schools' academic progress. In past years, the study has relied solely on graduation rates.

Developed last year, the NCAA's new academic standard awards APR points based on how many scholarship student-athletes meet academic eligibility standards. A cutoff score of 925 means an estimated 50 percent of those student-athletes are on track graduate.

Starting this year, NCAA schools that regularly fall below the 925 score can lose scholarships, face recruiting restrictions and miss postseason play.

In a dry run of the system last year, more than 90 percent of Division I teams across all sports had passing scores. According to Lapchick's report, only 33 of the 56 bowl-bound teams — 59 percent — got above the 925 cutoff.

``Obviously we would like to see those statistics higher,'' said NCAA spokesman Bob Williams. ``But this is a process that the NCAA member institutions are going through to change behavior and essentially ensure the student athletes, coaches and everyone involved in collegiate athletics understands that academic achievement and academic performance is just as important as athletic performance.''

While the APR figures give schools an up-to-date assessment of how they're doing, the graduation rates are still useful in showing the disparity in the graduation rates between black and white student-athletes, Lapchick said.

Two-thirds of the bowl-bound schools graduated less than half of their African-American football student-athletes. By comparison, 49 percent of the bowl-bound schools failed to have a 50 percent graduation rate overall for those players, according to Lapchick's report.

Lapchick praised Northwestern University and Boston College for doing the best job of graduating football players. Both teams graduated at least 78 percent of all football student-athletes and at least 74 percent of African-American football student-athletes.

Two conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East Conference, had every one of their bowl-bound schools receive an APR score higher than 925, and all the teams in both conferences were in the top 25 of APR rankings for bowl-bound schools.

The Pacific 10's five schools chosen for bowl games scored less than 925.

The NCAA should be aiming to have two-thirds of the schools make the 925 cut when the next round of APR figures are released early next year, Lapchick said.

``I'm really hopeful that the next time the APR scores come out, it will show the expected improvement because of the sanctions that can be imposed on the schools,'' Lapchick said. ``The APRs have gotten the schools' notice and attention.''

C-USA Basketball Standings, Scores & Schedule

C-USA Football Standings, Scores & Schedule

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Page Updated: 02/23/2007 12:30 PM