N.C.A.A. Looking Ahead on Poor Academic Progress

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/sports/ncaabasketball/03ncaa.html?ex=1179201600&en=1c023be0b674cd46&ei=5070

By PETE THAMEL

Published: May 3, 2007

The N.C.A.A. released its third annual installment of academic progress data yesterday, penalizing few colleges but projecting many more penalties next year.

Most of the programs cited in the latest round of penalties have a low national profile. But that should change next year when an exception known as squad size adjustment, which was incorporated to help teams adapt to the new rules, will no longer be available to help stave off scholarship losses.

Without the squad size adjustment, 44 percent of men’s basketball teams, 40 percent of football teams and 35 percent of baseball teams would have posted scores low enough to have “possibly lost scholarships,” according to a news release by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (The baseline number the N.C.A.A. uses for Academic Progress Rate is 925, which is approximately equal to a 60 percent graduation rate.)

The N.C.A.A. president, Myles Brand, said he was generally pleased with the data, which included improvements in baseball and football. But he added that the numbers in men’s basketball became worse; its 928 A.P.R. is the lowest of any sport.

“This year, to a large extent, this should be a warning to the presidents, athletic directors and coaches,” said Walter Harrison, the president of the University of Hartford and chairman of the committee on academic performance. “This is a good year to get a plan together and show improvement.”

Some of the colleges hit the hardest were those in Louisiana, which is still dealing with fallout from Hurricane Katrina, and historically black colleges and universities. N.C.A.A. officials said that they had set up a special fund, which has $1.6 million in it, to advise and support student-athletes at historically black colleges and universities. Hardship waivers have been available for the Louisiana colleges.

The N.C.A.A. announced that 63 teams would be subject to immediate penalties, 31 received public notice letters that they would be subject to more significant penalties next year, and 18 would be subject to both. Teams receiving warning letters are on notice to improve immediately. If not, they could eventually be subject to penalties as serious as postseason ineligibility.

Of the 11 Division I-A football programs assessed scholarship losses, only Arizona, which will lose four scholarships, plays in a Bowl Championship Series conference. The rest of the Division I-A programs come from small conferences and traditionally have smaller budgets to spend on academic support: Florida International (nine), San Jose State (seven), Buffalo (four), Toledo (four), Middle Tennessee State (four), Nevada-Las Vegas (three), Louisiana-Lafayette (two), Western Michigan (two), Alabama at Birmingham (one) and Hawaii (one).

In men’s basketball, the only teams from major conferences that will lose scholarships were Iowa State (two) and Cincinnati (one).