NCAA hits 99 men's programs for academic woes

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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2857999

HBCUs, Katrina-area schools struggle in APR report
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA's latest academic progress report shows money pays off in the classroom, not just on the playing field.

Athletic programs with the biggest budgets, such as the six BCS conferences, scored well on the latest Academic Progress Report, released Wednesday. Those with less money did not.

Among the hardest-hit schools were those in the Hurricane Katrina region and predominantly black colleges. Teams at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) accounted for about 13 percent of schools facing punishment because of poor classroom performance, and 13-of-49 schools receiving warning letters came from Louisiana.

NCAA President Myles Brand said he believes money supersedes racial or regional divides.

"It's more about low-income, low-resource schools," he said. "We're concerned about all schools with a low-support basis, and there are a number of HBCUs in that category. We're trying to provide them with the resources to do better."

This is the first time the NCAA has sent out warning letters based on academic performance.

The NCAA compiles an APR, which measures eligibility and retention of student athletes, for every program at every Division I school.

Teams scoring less than 925 -- the equivalent of a 60 percent graduation rate under the NCAA's formula -- received warning letters and could face harsher sanctions over the next three years. A second offense during that time would result in a reduction of practice time or games played. A third offense would result in disqualification from NCAA tournaments.

Louisiana-based Nicholls State received the second-most warning letters in four sports: baseball, men's cross country and women's indoor and outdoor track.

BCS teams, however, accounted for only 11 of 112 penalized teams, and no school from the BCS conferences received a warning letter. The most prominent programs cited were Arizona's football team and the men's basketball teams at Cincinnati and Iowa State, which could all lose scholarships next year.

"If you do have more resources, I think that you do have a better opportunity," Texas Southern athletic director Alois Blackwell said after receiving five warning letters, the most nationally. "When you don't, I'm not saying you can't, but it makes it a little more difficult for you to do it."

HBCUs received more than 50 waivers, excusing them from penalties for now, NCAA vice president Kevin Lennon said. The NCAA did not have the figures on how many hurricane-affected schools got waivers.

Brand praised New Orleans' Tulane University for its strong academic performance despite Hurricane Katrina -- all seven of its teams scored 940 or better.

"What Tulane and these other schools have been through is one of the worst historical situations possible," Brand said. "If Tulane can accomplish that, it's just remarkable."

Brand has committed the NCAA to helping schools improve, through planning and counseling and now with providing grant money for academic projects. Last week, the NCAA's board of directors approved a $1.6 million fund that would offer grants beginning next year.

"We want to help give those schools a jump-start in those academic areas," Brand said.

If a team's score fell under 900, it could lose scholarships based on the number of ineligible players leaving school during the next year. No team could lose more than 10 percent of its allotted scholarships, so football teams would lose up to nine players while basketball teams would lose only two.

Tennessee-Chattanooga and San Jose State were the only two schools who received warning letters and also face the loss of scholarships. Each were cited in football. Tennessee-Chattanooga also was penalized in wrestling, while San Jose State was cited in men's soccer.

Florida International's football team, which was involved in a prominent brawl against nearby rival Miami, could lose up to nine scholarships next year, and Georgia Southern, which won back-to-back Division I-AA football titles in 1999 and 2000, also faces potential scholarship losses in football.

Lennon said he expects the results will be more balanced next year, when the NCAA drops a mathematical calculation that helped some BCS teams this year.

Wednesday's report showed women's teams continued to perform better academically than men's teams. Women's teams averaged a score of 970, men's teams 950. Thirteen women's teams were cited, compared with 99 men's squads.

Although no sport averaged less than 925 over the three-year period, football, baseball and men's basketball consistently compiled the lowest scores and most citations.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02776.html

NCAA Penalties for Low Graduation Rates to Rise
By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 3, 2007; Page E01


The NCAA sanctioned 112 Division I college sports programs yesterday for failing to meet academic standards, and the organization's officials warned that significantly more teams, including marquee men's basketball and football programs, could be punished next year.

The latest wave of penalties for poor Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, which measure how well a team returns academically eligible athletes semester to semester, will immediately affect only 63 programs out of 6,110 Division I sports teams.

In all, 44 percent of men's basketball programs and 40 percent of football programs fell below the 925 cutoff score, which equates roughly to a 60 percent graduation rate. But most of those programs were spared penalties because teams with smaller rosters are granted greater margins for error.

With a fourth year of data available next year, the margin for error, also known as the squad-size adjustment, will be eliminated, putting all teams that fell below the 925 threshold at risk. Teams that score below 925 and have a player fail academically and leave school can lose up to 10 percent of their scholarships.

"Unless a team has a significant improvement over the next year, when the [margin for error] goes away, or unless they have a workable plan for recovery, there will be more penalties," NCAA President Myles Brand said. "It's hard to estimate how many more, but it could be significantly more than we have seen this year."

The Maryland's men's basketball team had a three-year score of 908 that was based on the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years, but was spared penalties because of the squad-size adjustment.

Maryland's score was significantly hurt by the fact that all four seniors on the 2005-06 team left school last spring without graduating. Programs can earn bonus points if players later return to school to earn their degree. None of the four players who left has earned his degree, according to Anton Goff, Maryland's associate athletic director for academic support.

"We have got to get a message to guys that it is not good enough to just leave," Goff said. "We want you to leave in good standing -- hopefully graduate, but if you're not going to graduate, at least finish out the semester here and leave in good standing. If a young man can see the light at the end of the tunnel, say the season ends mid-March, it's really only a month and a half left. They can get all the training and what they need right here."

Three of Maryland's five scholarship seniors this past season -- Will Bowers, Ekene Ibekwe and Parrish Brown -- are on track to graduate, a source said, while two, D.J. Strawberry and Mike Jones, have left school to train for a professional basketball career.

Brand acknowledged that while fewer players in baseball and football are leaving school in poor standing, he has not seen the same improvement in men's basketball.

College basketball coaches long have said that it's almost impossible to influence a player to finish the semester when he wants to begin training for his professional career. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said he recommends that players try to graduate within 3 1/2 years, but even that plan does not account for non-seniors who choose to leave in the middle of the spring semester.

"You can't do anything," Boeheim said yesterday. "If one or two kids leave, it doesn't take much to be below 925. Who do we hold responsible? How do you hold the kid or the coach responsible? If you have three or four great players at once, how do you have an APR? You might have a chance to win something big, but your APR is bad."

Thirty-one programs received formal warnings that they were in danger of receiving penalties reserved for chronic scores of 900 or less. Beginning next year, the NCAA will impose historical penalties that could include additional scholarship losses and even postseason bans.

Only a small number of marquee programs in men's basketball and football were immediately affected. This year, only one football team from a BCS conference, Arizona, and one men's basketball program from a power conference, Cincinnati, will lose scholarships. (Iowa State men's basketball program will avoid scholarship losses after receiving a waiver because several players left after a head coaching change.)

More recognizable programs could be affected next year. Walter Harrison, the University of Hartford president and chair of the NCAA's committee on academic performance, said, "This year, to a large extent, should be a warning and advice to the presidents, athletic directors and the coaches that this is a good year to get a plan together and show some improvement."