Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball Found Deficient in Latest NCAA APR
By John PorentasThe NCAA Academic Progress Report was released on Tuesday. The report was positive for Ohio State with one glaring exception, men's basketball.
The NCAA Academic Progress initiative has a goal of retention of student-athletes and the graduation of student-athletes. Its complex scoring system measures the progress toward a degree made by student-athletes and rewards institutions which retrain athletes as students. The calculations are made on a sport-by-sport for each institution.
Rather than dazzle you with the math, we'll just tell you that it is extremely important that each program within a school's department of athletics have a four-year average of 925 in the APR. If the four-year average dips below 925, a school can be subject to sanctions including loss of scholarships and loss of post-season play privileges.
The Ohio State men's basketball team has a current four-year average of 908, below the acceptable average. Additionally, one of the" trigger events" that require sanctions has occurred.
Student-athletes who leave a program that do not complete the quarter in which they leave AND are ineligible when they leave are knows as "0-for-2" athletes and constitute a trigger event. The Ohio State men's basketball program currently falls into the category of a school which is below the 925 minimum and has an 0-for-2 trigger event.
The sanction required for the situation is the loss of a scholarship. However, institutions that find themselves facing sanctions can apply for a waiver. OSU has done that and the waiver has been conditionally approved.
According to OSU Athletics Faculty Representative John Bruno the waiver application requires the institution to submit a plan for improvement and, most importantly, demonstrate that they are executing that plan and improving. If that does not occur, the loss of scholarship penalty is then enforced.
Bruno characterized the situation as "serious but not dire". The basketball program achieved an APR score of 939 in the 2007-08 season just ended. Its score was 932 the previous season (2006-07). The problem is in the previous two seasons, 2005-06 and 2004-05. According to Bruno, the worst of those two was the 2004-05 season, and that season will drop off the four-year average next year. It still remains very important that the program achieve a high score over the reporting period covering the 2008-09 season.
There are some rather widespread misconceptions regarding the actual calculation. For instance, players who leave a program to pursue a professional career do not negatively impact the APR so long as the student-athlete completes the academic term (quarter or semester) and is eligible academically when he leaves the university. If however the student-athlete drops out of school before finishing the term or is ineligible academically, he or she negatively impacts the team APR.
Players who transfer also do not impact the APR so long as they have a GPA of 2.6 or better. If, however, they transfer with a GPA of 2.6 or less, they do negatively impact the APR.
Finally, trigger events (such as student-athletes leaving while ineligible or not completing the academic term) DO NOT trigger sanctions so long as the program's four-year APR average is above 925.
Around the Big Ten, Indiana had two programs with an APR below 925, baseball with 899 and men's basketball with 924. Minnesota's men' basketball program scored 910, and the Purdue men's basketball program scored 899.
The Ohio State football program has a four-year average of 942 and scored 984 in the most-recent reporting year.
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