Post by elp525 on Jun 10, 2010 5:04:16 GMT -5
June 9, 2010
Women's rowing only sport cited by NCAA for academics
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN - West Virginia's academic bottom line with the NCAA continues to improve, but that still didn't stop one sport from being slapped with the loss of scholarships.
The NCAA released its Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers Wednesday and the average score of WVU's 17 athletic teams was up four points from last year and 12 over the score of two years ago. West Virginia's 968 average is one point higher than the national average for Division I schools.
But the school's women's rowing team continues to struggle. That team's four-year average stands at 915, or 10 points below the level at which sanctions are considered. As a result, the NCAA will dock the team the equivalent of 1.17 scholarships out of the 20 permitted for the sport.
This is the first time in the last two years that the NCAA has penalized a WVU sport with the loss of scholarships. After the 2008 report, rowing, wrestling and men's soccer were penalized.
Overall, though, West Virginia's APR numbers are improving. Four teams - men's basketball, women's cross country and gymnastics and co-ed rifle - had perfect APR scores of 1000 for the 2008-09 academic year on which the current numbers are based. And last month, men's basketball, women's cross country and women's soccer were recognized among the top 10 percent of Division I schools for their performance over the last four years.
The APR is a rolling, four-year compilation of data designed to track the academic progress of students - sport by sport and semester by semester - at every Division I institution. A team's score is gained by awarding one point for every athlete who finishes a semester in good academic standing and another point for retention, or remaining in school. A team's score is derived by dividing those points by the total possible points and multiplying by a thousand, meaning the best possible score is 1000. The NCAA has established 925 as the minimum threshold to avoid sanctions ranging from loss of scholarships to bans on postseason eligibility.
The data in the report released Wednesday includes the 2005-06 school year through 2008-09.
West Virginia's two highest-profile sports fared extremely well. The men's basketball team had a perfect score during the 2008-09 academic year and its four-year average rose to 990, 50 points higher than the average for all Division I schools and 52 better than the average for major schools, those that play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
And the football number for 2008-09 was 974, raising the four-year average to 952. That's eight points above the average for all Division I schools and 13 points higher than the average for FBS schools.
The problems encountered by the rowing team are not so much academic failures as the result of transfers. The school went through a change of coaches three years ago and when a few athletes decided to change schools it hit the APR numbers hard. The team's most recent APR score for the 2008-09 school year alone was just barely above the 925 cutoff (926), but it also included four who were named the sport's version of academic All-Americas.
"In my three years as the head rowing coach at West Virginia University, we continue to make academic progress and move toward the future with a very promising academic outlook,'' said coach Jimmy King. "In the fall semester, our team grade-point average was the second highest in the athletic department. This past year, we had six student-athletes on the President's List and another 10 student-athletes on the Dean's List. Also, we had more than two-thirds of our squad on the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll with a 3.0 GPA or higher. ... We continue to make progress and our coaching staff and student-athletes are committed to academic success."
In addition to the rowing team, the men's soccer team also fell below the 925 threshold for the four-year average at just 917. But that team was not hit by sanctions because it did not have what the NCAA refers to as 0-for-2s, players who leave school while academically ineligible (thus losing the points for both academic eligibility and retention). Also, the soccer team's 2008-09 APR was a lofty 986.
One of the brightest spots on the report for West Virginia was in wrestling, where just two years ago the program was hit with what amounted to nearly the maximum scholarship-loss penalty. The NCAA caps scholarship sanctions at 10 percent of the maximum allowed and WVU's wrestling team had to give up 0.88 of its 9.9 scholarship (8.9 percent).
But while the wrestling team's APR in the first report five years ago was an awful 828, it has risen steadily to its current 957 over the latest four-year period and 962 this year. That 957 is now higher than the average for all Division I schools and for FBS schools.
Three years ago, five WVU teams fell below the 925 threshold. That number fell to four in 2008 and two last year and this.
Compared to other schools and how they fared academically in the same sports, West Virginia's results were mixed. For instance, while the men's basketball team was in the upper 10 percent with its 990 four-year score, the women's gymnastics team actually scored higher (991) but ranked just above the average (the 50-60th percentile) within its sport, where scores were much better overall.
In 11 of WVU's 17 sports, the teams' APR scores were above the average for their sport. Those that weren't were rowing, men's soccer, men's and women's swimming, women's basketball and baseball.
Women's rowing only sport cited by NCAA for academics
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN - West Virginia's academic bottom line with the NCAA continues to improve, but that still didn't stop one sport from being slapped with the loss of scholarships.
The NCAA released its Academic Progress Rate (APR) numbers Wednesday and the average score of WVU's 17 athletic teams was up four points from last year and 12 over the score of two years ago. West Virginia's 968 average is one point higher than the national average for Division I schools.
But the school's women's rowing team continues to struggle. That team's four-year average stands at 915, or 10 points below the level at which sanctions are considered. As a result, the NCAA will dock the team the equivalent of 1.17 scholarships out of the 20 permitted for the sport.
This is the first time in the last two years that the NCAA has penalized a WVU sport with the loss of scholarships. After the 2008 report, rowing, wrestling and men's soccer were penalized.
Overall, though, West Virginia's APR numbers are improving. Four teams - men's basketball, women's cross country and gymnastics and co-ed rifle - had perfect APR scores of 1000 for the 2008-09 academic year on which the current numbers are based. And last month, men's basketball, women's cross country and women's soccer were recognized among the top 10 percent of Division I schools for their performance over the last four years.
The APR is a rolling, four-year compilation of data designed to track the academic progress of students - sport by sport and semester by semester - at every Division I institution. A team's score is gained by awarding one point for every athlete who finishes a semester in good academic standing and another point for retention, or remaining in school. A team's score is derived by dividing those points by the total possible points and multiplying by a thousand, meaning the best possible score is 1000. The NCAA has established 925 as the minimum threshold to avoid sanctions ranging from loss of scholarships to bans on postseason eligibility.
The data in the report released Wednesday includes the 2005-06 school year through 2008-09.
West Virginia's two highest-profile sports fared extremely well. The men's basketball team had a perfect score during the 2008-09 academic year and its four-year average rose to 990, 50 points higher than the average for all Division I schools and 52 better than the average for major schools, those that play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
And the football number for 2008-09 was 974, raising the four-year average to 952. That's eight points above the average for all Division I schools and 13 points higher than the average for FBS schools.
The problems encountered by the rowing team are not so much academic failures as the result of transfers. The school went through a change of coaches three years ago and when a few athletes decided to change schools it hit the APR numbers hard. The team's most recent APR score for the 2008-09 school year alone was just barely above the 925 cutoff (926), but it also included four who were named the sport's version of academic All-Americas.
"In my three years as the head rowing coach at West Virginia University, we continue to make academic progress and move toward the future with a very promising academic outlook,'' said coach Jimmy King. "In the fall semester, our team grade-point average was the second highest in the athletic department. This past year, we had six student-athletes on the President's List and another 10 student-athletes on the Dean's List. Also, we had more than two-thirds of our squad on the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll with a 3.0 GPA or higher. ... We continue to make progress and our coaching staff and student-athletes are committed to academic success."
In addition to the rowing team, the men's soccer team also fell below the 925 threshold for the four-year average at just 917. But that team was not hit by sanctions because it did not have what the NCAA refers to as 0-for-2s, players who leave school while academically ineligible (thus losing the points for both academic eligibility and retention). Also, the soccer team's 2008-09 APR was a lofty 986.
One of the brightest spots on the report for West Virginia was in wrestling, where just two years ago the program was hit with what amounted to nearly the maximum scholarship-loss penalty. The NCAA caps scholarship sanctions at 10 percent of the maximum allowed and WVU's wrestling team had to give up 0.88 of its 9.9 scholarship (8.9 percent).
But while the wrestling team's APR in the first report five years ago was an awful 828, it has risen steadily to its current 957 over the latest four-year period and 962 this year. That 957 is now higher than the average for all Division I schools and for FBS schools.
Three years ago, five WVU teams fell below the 925 threshold. That number fell to four in 2008 and two last year and this.
Compared to other schools and how they fared academically in the same sports, West Virginia's results were mixed. For instance, while the men's basketball team was in the upper 10 percent with its 990 four-year score, the women's gymnastics team actually scored higher (991) but ranked just above the average (the 50-60th percentile) within its sport, where scores were much better overall.
In 11 of WVU's 17 sports, the teams' APR scores were above the average for their sport. Those that weren't were rowing, men's soccer, men's and women's swimming, women's basketball and baseball.
