University of Massachusets Athletics
Massachusetts Athletics Programs Post Strong APR Numbers
June 21, 2012 | General
June 21, 2012
AMHERST, Mass. - The Massachusetts Athletic Department released the Academic Progress Rates (APR) of its 21 Division I intercollegiate teams on Wednesday via the NCAA.
A total of 14 teams maintained or improved upon their data from last year, while the sports of baseball, men's basketball, men's cross country, football, ice hockey, men's lacrosse, softball, women's tennis and women's rowing all tied or set new high scores. This is the eighth year the national governing body has produced the APR.
The softball team was recognized last week with a public recognition award for having a score in the top 10 percent of its particular sport. The team posted a perfect score of 1000 for the second-consecutive year.
The APR measures the eligibility and retention of scholarship student-athletes competing on every Division I sports team. The most recent APR scores are based on a multi-year rate that averages scores from the 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11 academic years.
The APR is based on each student-athlete, having the opportunity to earn two points during each regular academic term of full-time enrollment (e.g., fall semester). One point is awarded if the student-athlete is academically eligible to compete the following regular academic term (or has graduated). The other point is awarded if the student-athlete returns to the institution as a full-time student the next regular academic term or graduates from the university. The APR is calculated by adding all points earned by student-athletes over the past four academic years and dividing that number by the total possible points that could have been earned. That number is then multiplied by 1,000.
When a team's academic performance, measured by that team's multi-year APR, falls below 925, that team becomes subject to penalties if any student-athlete on that team did not return to the institution as a full-time student and was not academically eligible when the student-athlete left the institution. This penalty is known as a contemporaneous penalty and potentially limits the amount of athletics aid that the team may award.