The National Collegiate Athletic Association has barred 15 teams from postseason competition in the 2012-13 academic year for failing to maintain minimum academic standards, according to the association’s annual analysis of athletes’ academic performance.
Among the suspended programs is the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team, which won the national championship in 2011.
Who’s Improving and Who’s Lagging?
Interactive Graphic
College Athletes Make Academic Progress
Most teams in the nation’s six major conferences steadily improved on the NCAA’s academic-progress rate.
Use our graphic to see which institutions have made strides—and which ones are still in the danger zone.
The number of suspensions is almost twice the eight handed down last year. In addition to UConn, nine other Division I men’s basketball teams were suspended from postseason play, as well as three football programs and one team each in men’s soccer and wrestling, according to the NCAA’s report, which was released on Wednesday and includes academic-progress rates for more than 6,400 Division I teams. (Although California State University at Bakersfield’s men’s basketball team is marked as suspended, its case is still under review.)
The NCAA started calculating academic-progress rates in 2004 to measure eligibility, retention rates, and graduation rates for players on teams in Division I. A total score of 900, for instance, means that roughly 40 percent of a team’s players have graduated within six years. This year’s academic-progress rates reflect a four-year average, from 2007-8 to 2010-11.
Although the NCAA suspended more programs this year, it levied fewer penalties over all on poorly performing teams than in previous years. The total number of teams whose scores made them eligible for a penalty fell to 54, down from 350 the previous year.
This year also marks a change in the way the NCAA determines which schools are in penalty territory. Now teams must score more than 900 or face possible penalties. In previous years, two cutoffs—at 925 and 900—determined the type of penalty a team could receive. Beyond a postseason ban, penalties include reductions in athletics scholarships, restrictions on recruiting, suspensions of coaches, and reductions in practice time.
In this year’s report, only a fraction of teams eligible for a penalty received one, continuing a trend from previous years. The number of penalties handed down decreased to 35, from 103 last year, as the NCAA maintained its practice of granting waivers for extenuating circumstances.
Limited-Resource Lag
Over all, Division I teams continue to post higher academic-progress rates. In 2010-11, the average score for all Division I teams was 973, up three points from the previous year. The three sports the NCAA pays special attention to—men’s basketball, football, and baseball—all saw increases in their average scores.
President Mark Emmert of the NCAA said the report’s calculations this year are “clearly yielding the kind of results we want.” He said NCAA officials passed reform packages in 2011 that will raise academic standards for athletes. The reforms include raising the academic standards for entering high-school athletes and transfers, and starting a single-penalty structure with a benchmark academic-progress rate set at 930 in 2014-15.
Men’s teams continue to post lower scores than do women’s teams. Of the teams that were penalized this year, men’s basketball and football accounted for more than half: 20 of the 35 teams. The remaining 15 included 13 other men’s teams and only two women’s teams. Over all, eight women’s teams were below the 900 mark this year. Two received penalties.
Among marquee sports, men’s basketball and baseball posted the greatest increases, with basketball teams scoring five points higher than they did last year, to reach an average score of 950. Baseball scored six points higher, with a score of 965.
Football did not fare quite as well. On average, the sport’s academic-progress rate rose by two points, to 948. Teams in the Football Championship Subdivision remained those with the lowest score among all men’s teams, although they increased their score by one point, to 944, this year. All five football teams penalized this year were from the FCS.
Although the report shows improvement over all, teams that do not belong to major athletics conferences and have limited resources to provide tutors and other academic support to athletes continue to struggle. This year, 25 of the 35 teams penalized are determined by the NCAA to have limited resources. Limited-resource teams also made up 80 percent of all programs eligible for a penalty. Historically black colleges constituted 57 percent of those eligible for a penalty.
Walter Harrison, chair of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Performance, said he was still encouraged that limited-resource teams also showed some improvement in their academic-progress rates from previous years. Limited-resource teams will be given more leeway to adjust when the benchmark score is set to 930 in the coming years, he said.
Fewer teams in major conferences fell below the NCAA’s benchmark this year.
Apart from UConn’s men’s basketball, which scored an 889, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s men’s basketball, at 894, was the only other team from a major conference to score below the cutoff of 900. The Razorbacks did not receive a penalty.
The full report, including a searchable database of academic-progress rates for all Division I teams, is available on the NCAA’s Web site.
