Both Georgia Tech and Georgia touted improved scores as the NCAA released its annual report on the academic performance of all Division I sports teams Tuesday.
At Georgia, 13 of its 20 varsity teams either improved or maintained their Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores from last year, three of which earned perfect 1,000 scores. At Tech, 11 of 17 teams made improvements or held steady in the scores that measure retention, eligibility and graduation of a team’s scholarship athletes over a four-year period.
“It is very encouraging to see that our Academic Progress Rate scores continue to climb each year, and that our student-athletes are excelling in the classroom,” Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski said in a statement.
The measurement period was the 2008-09 through 2011-12 academic years. The national average was 974.
Across the state, only two teams failed to meet the 900 score necessary to avoid sanctions. Savannah State’s football team will be held out of the postseason. The football and men’s basketball teams will be required to reduce their practice time in the coming season. The football team scored an 876 while the basketball team received an 898. A 930 APR score roughly predicts a graduation success rate of 50 percent.
The Georgia football team earned a 968 score, down two points from last year. It tied for third with Florida, behind Alabama (978) and Vanderbilt (973). The men’s basketball team jumped 30 points to 990, second in the SEC and tied for 27th in the country. Eight Bulldogs teams recorded their highest scores ever in the eight years that the NCAA has used APR.
“It takes great teamwork to be successful in anything, and this is a good example of teamwork among our student-athletes, academic-counseling staff, and our coaches,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said in a statement.
The Tech football team rose nine points to 983 on the strength of a near-perfect single-year score in 2011-12. The team’s best-ever score placed third in the ACC and sixth in the country among FBS teams.
The Tech men’s golf team, which finished the season ranked in the top 10 of two national polls, maintained the 1,000 score it has achieved every year since the institution of APR. The Tech’s men’s basketball team, which dipped to 908 in the 2010 report and was twice required to reduce its scholarship allotment, improved by 37 points to 972. The team’s score ranked sixth in the ACC.
The Kennesaw State men’s basketball team made similar progress. The Owls program, which was penalized three consecutive years with scholarship reductions and bottomed out at 846 four years ago, has improved to 934.
Georgia State’s football team received its first score, a 948. The national average for the sport in Division I (encompassing both FBS and FCS) is 949. The school’s scores ranged from 992 (men’s golf) to 923 (men’s tennis).
The Georgia Southern football team, which was hit with scholarship reductions for the first six years of APR monitoring, improved its score for the seventh consecutive year, to 939. Still, it ranked eighth in the nine-team Southern Conference. Nine of 15 Eagles teams improved their multiyear scores.
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