UTEP Athletics Losing Scholarships After Academic Progress Rates Released
The NCAA released its full academic progress rates today, and six non-AQ schools are faced with losing scholarships for poor academic performance, including UTEP.
Each Division I team calculates its APR each academic year, based on the eligibility and retention of each scholarship student-athlete. Teams scoring below certain thresholds can face penalties, including scholarship losses and restrictions on practice and competition. Rates are based on the past four years? performance.
“We lose four scholarships in football,” UTEP spokesman Jeff Darby said. “It’s a one-time hit, but the expectation is that we take the penalty at the first possible opportunity prior to the fall of 2012. For instance, we can take two scholarships in the fall and two in the spring for a total of four.”
UTEP Athletics Director Bob Stull released the following statement:
“Graduating student-athletes has always been of the utmost priority for the UTEP athletics administration and coaches. We are proud to say that this year a record 38 student-athletes (including Top 10 Senior Melissa Desilets) went through commencement on May 14. The APR gives us a snapshot of the academic progress in each of our sports over the last four years. Despite achieving solid APR scores in 14 of our 16 sports and garnering recognition for our track team finishing in the top 10 national percentile, we fell short of the 925 benchmark in football and men’s basketball. The APR scores in men’s basketball are due to a low multiyear retention rate, which is a direct result of two coaching changes in five years. The good news is that the players who left were eligible, and of the eight seniors on this year’s squad, seven have already graduated and one will graduate this summer. Additionally, a junior on this year’s team, Gabe McCulley, has also earned his degree. Coach Floyd already took the scholarship reduction last year in anticipation of the penalty. Prior to this report, football has always been above the 925 cutline, but unfortunately this year fell to 918. As a result, football will suffer a loss of scholarships for the very first time since Mike Price’s arrival. We are concerned about this drop, but our Miner Athletic Academic Center does a great job putting each of our athletes on the road to a degree, and we are confident that they will help address the issue with a solid plan to reach our goals. The NCAA has already mandated a tougher rule in football eligibility standards due to a national trend in lack of hours passed during the football season. This rule, coupled with our own monitoring of the situation, should produce much improved APR numbers for our football program in the future.”
According to New Mexico State, three sports were under the 925 academic progress rate, but will not be receiving penalties. Football and basketball will not be punished because both have shown a history of improvement. Track and field won’t be punished because they were short only by a point.
