FanHouse APR

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Mr. BCS Goes To Washington -- Except I have a feeling Jimmy Stewart would find some way to rail against the BCS, however wrongheadedly. You see, the big word in the halls of Congress on Friday was "fair" but don't let that confuse you. While the Mountain West and certain members of Congress are using the fairness term to stoke public support, their real concern is about money.

After years of pressure from academics and university presidents, the NCAA began to increase penalties for failing to meet academic standards with the Academic Progress Rate (APR). The fallout from such standards, just might be trickling down to coaches, especially in the Big 12.

At Nebraska, first year head coach Bo Pelini is stressing the importance of class attendance.

"It's a big deal now," said Nebraska senior linebacker Tyler Wortman. "We have people checking on everybody, making sure you're in class."

It's common to see members of Nebraska's academic support staff -- and sometimes even Pelini himself -- making the rounds on campus to make sure players are in class.

Academics have always been important at Nebraska, which boasts a nation-leading total of 255 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans. Pelini, however, appears to be ramping up the accountability for student-athletes. And it's hard to argue with Pelini's bottom-line:

"It's not up for debate," Pelini said. "If you don't want to go to class, turn pro."

Books... of doom!

Buried in a USAToday fluff piece about the super happytime NCAA graduation fairy is this potential -- depending on the teams in question -- bombshell:

if the new projections hold, and Brand cautions that they're highly tentative, some 70 men's basketball, 40 baseball and 28 football teams will be hit with penalties.

The sudden uptick in penalized programs comes with the NCAA's disposal of the "squad size adjustment" that kept many schools above a relaxed Mendoza line because of pesky statistical realities like "eight people is not a good sample size." The NCAA now has a full enough set of data to remove the SSA and start imposing penalties at the planned 925 cutoff. (Every D-I school's most recent APR reports can be found here.)

Will this hit any major programs? Maybe, maybe not. Last year saw the first penalties imposed but the bulk of the football programs that got it were either I-AA schools or I-A bottom feeders like Florida International and San Jose State. The only BCS program to get dinged was Arizona, which operated four scholarships short a year ago.

HOWEVA(!), there are a number of major programs below the cutoff last year who were only spared because of the squad size adjustment: Texas A&M at 922, West Virginia at 924, Kansas at 918, South Carolina at 913, Oregon State at 913, Oregon at 912, South Florida at 910, and others. Since the APR is a four-year running average, those well behind the pack like South Florida are unlikely to make it above the cutoff this year. Others like Virginia Tech and Illinois were just above the cutoff and could fall below it if they have an attrition-laden year.

So, yeah, it looks like at least a few BCS programs are going to get picked off here, and this APR thing will indeed have some teeth to it. Kudos to the NCAA.

According to the NCAA, if it wasn't for the "squad size adjustments" to the APR results this year, 43.6% of the Division 1 basketball programs would be under the Academic Progrees Rate (APR) this year (PDF, page 5). The Big East is a team worse than that average as 8 of the 16 basketball programs are under the 925 minimum score. The rankings are still incomplete as the APR is to be based on a rolling 4-year rankings, and this is only year three. Teams that are right around 900 are not penalized as there are "squad sized adjustments" to the figures. The NCAA expects that teams around 900 will reach the 925 floor by next year.

1. Villanova 993
2. Notre Dame 977
3. Georgetown 970
4. Syracuse 948
5. Rutgers 943
6. Providence 938
7. UConn 934
8. Marquette 927
9. Seton Hall 921*
10. Louisville 920*
11. WVU 915*
12. St. John's 909*
13. Pitt 907*
14. USF 898*
15. DePaul 893*
16. Cinci 838**

Cincinnati was penalized one scholarship for not even being close to the confidence level of the APR. Cinci apparently anticipated this, as they have not used all 13 of their allotted scholarships. While the blame will fall largely on former coach Bob Huggins, Cinci was really hurt by the firing of Huggins and the subsequent quitting and transfers of players afterwards.

Big East football doesn't appear to have much to worry about in penalties from the NCAA for their Academic Performance Rate (APR) for the foreseeable future. The magic minimum number is 925. The rankings are still incomplete as it is supposed to be based on a rolling 4-year rankings, and this is only year three. So teams that are right around 900 are not penalized as there are "squad sized adjustments" to the figures. The NCAA expects that teams around 900 will reach the 925 floor by next year.

Here's how the Big East teams ranked on APR scores:

1. Rutgers 971
2. UConn 963
3. Syracuse 958
4. Pitt 948
5. Louisville 947
6. Cinci 941
7. WVU 924*
8. USF 910*

It's mildly surprising to see UConn so high on the list considering all the off-the-field problems that have been happening in the last couple of years. Rutgers is impressive to be at the top as teams that are trying to build a program, generally take more chances on academically shakier students (see, USF at the bottom).

Both WVU and USF are below the 925 minimum, but are expected that by the time the 2006-07 numbers are included they will have reached the magic number.

Previously on Fanhouse:
APR Reports Generate Anxiety and Relief

The NCAA released its Academic Progress Reports (APR) for every school and the teams for each sport. A total of 6110 teams are included. You can view each school's individual report (they are in PDF). The APR is supposed to be a rolling 4-year average, but the NCAA isn't at that point. This is only the third year so there are adjustments and leeway given to some teams. The grace period is granted only if they are showing that they are closing on meeting the magic number of 925 by the time the 4th year is reached. (The APR records started being kept in the 2003-04 school year.)

If a team is at 900 or so, they won't be getting penalized immediately. The penalties can range from warning letters, practice restrictions, lack of access to postseason competition, restricted membership and loss of scholarships for the teams that don't meet performance standards. Already, teams across various collegiate sports have been penalized with scholarship losses.

The BCS schools for football and basketball, generally are in good shape. Only a few programs are facing scholarship reductions. Many are close or have been warned, but scholarship reductions are rather limited. Some of the notable teams penalized after this latest report:

A couple years ago the NCAA introduced the Academic Progress Rate, a revamped graduation rate for the 24th and a half century that didn't punish schools as much for transfers or early departures as long as the departing athlete was on track for a degree. They gave it some teeth, declaring that anyone who fell short of an NCAA minimum would be docked scholarships, but let several schools skate a year ago as they adjusted to the new rules. Today we have our first scofflaw of the APR era: the Montana State Bobcats,* who will lose three scholarships next year for coming in woefully under the minimum.**

The Bobcats are addressing the problem, requesting a report and taking action to improve the situation...

"It was a concern and is a concern," said Peter Fields, MSU's athletic director. "It's been a topic of conversation with Coach Kramer and myself ... The things that we're working to put in place now are geared toward the academic progress of our student-athletes."

...but mostly because HOLY CRAP:

The report was requested by Gamble last summer following the arrest of two former MSU athletes on murder charges in the death of a local man.

Good luck to Montana State in its effort to not have their football players flunk out and/or go to jail for a long, long time.

*(In lieu of an actual picture of Montana State football players, please accept Bobcat Goldthwait looking noble in his underwear.)

**(At least I'm pretty sure they're the first scofflaw. Oddly, the AP article claims that this is "the second time in several years" that Montana State's football program has been docked scholarships, but since the APR only came into existence a couple years ago and wasn't being enforced strictly until this year that's impossible.)