All CMU athletic teams clear NCAA benchmark for academic progress
All Central Michigan athletic programs passed the Academic Progress Rate for the 2010-11 year, released Wednesday by the NCAA.
All 16 teams cleared the 925 benchmark set by the NCAA, with women’s cross country (995), softball (991) and field hockey (984) leading the way for the athletics program.
Men’s basketball (940), football (941) and wrestling (943) came the closest to the mark. Football and wrestling both took a fall compared to 2009-10, while men's basketball actually went up from the 923 posted.
CMU ranks No. 9 in the Mid-American Conference in football and No. 8 in men’s basketball. The football team faced an immediate penalty following the 2008 season, resulting in a loss of scholarships for the football program, for their 922 APR rating for the 2006-07 school year.
Every team in the MAC passed the benchmark except for one: Toledo's men’s basketball team, which is ineligible for postseason play next season after posting an APR of 869.
The Rockets have been marked with two historical penalties, which puts them on public notice and practice reduction. They also face Level 1 and 2 penalties, which hands them in- and out-of-season restrictions, including a postseason ban.
With the practice reduction, UT must use that time for “academic activities."
Including the Rockets, 15 teams are facing postseason bans for the 2012-13 season. Of those 15, 10 are men’s basketball programs, including the 2011 national champions University of Connecticut.
Eleven MAC schools posted perfect scores of 1000, including Kent State baseball, which is currently in the College World Series.
The APR rating is a term-by-term measure of eligibility and retention, originally designed to be an early indicator of graduation rates. The score is determined by every scholarship athlete earning a point for staying in school and another for being eligible. The points are then divided by the total points possible and then multiplied by 1000.
