Understanding the NCAA APR and how it can help you hate the Yeti even more
Bear in mind that everything you’re about to read hinges on the recounting of comments by a college football coach at an alumni chapter meeting by a fan on the Internet. BBC fact checked, this thing ain’t.
According to multiple internet reports (again, big canary-yellow caution flags a-wavin’) Houston Nutt told a crowd at the Lee County (Tupelo) Ole Miss Alumni Chapter that the Rebels would lose three scholarships for football next year because of academic performance related to the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) system, which calculates a score of academic performance among specific teams at universities.
The factor that most affects a team’s APR is a student athlete who fails or leaves the program without graduating. You can read more about the NCAA APR here, but it boils down to this:
1) Every scholarship athlete can earn up to two points. One for simply remaining enrolled each year and one for being academically eligible. Eligibility is passing a minimum of six hours a semester and completing 20 percent of degree coursework a year. Take it from someone academically dismissed from Ole Miss twice – it takes special effort to become un-enrolled.
2) Take the total points earned by the team and divide it by the total possible points. Now multiply by 1000, and look for your punishment here:
Every Division I sports team calculates its APR each academic year, based on the eligibility, retention and graduation of each scholarship student-athlete. An APR of 925 projects to an NCAA Graduation Success Rate of approximately 60 percent.
Teams that score below 925 and have a student leave school academically ineligible can lose up to 10 percent of their scholarships. Known as immediate penalties, these scholarships can be lost each year and not awarded until the following year. Teams can also be subject to historical penalties for poor academic performance over time.
In the 2008 NCAA APR Report, released in May of last year, Ole Miss’ football program had a 931 “multi-year” APR, ranging over four academic years. For perspective, Vanderbilt had a 959 in the same span, meaning we couldn’t beat a bunch of white prep school linebackers and two-star receivers in the classroom OR on the field.
It would seem (again, this is knee-jerk research in response to Internet based rumors) that three years of the Cajun Yeti’s attempts to jam in as many academically questionable four-and-five-star recruits as possible has finally taken its toll on the Rebel football program, albeit posthumously for that regime.
For every un-learned blue chip that was successfully wedged in – Jerrell Powe being the obvious example – there’s a litany of cast offs and quitters in the Cajun Yeti’s wake. Granted, some of the academic busts and discipline problems were brought in under David Cutcliffe (linebacker Garry Pack), but the large majority were The Yeti’s attempt at quick-fixing his depth chart needs.
Quentin Taylor, Rory Johnson, Reterio Brown, Rob Russell… those are the first few names I can rattle off. There are plenty more, but until someone with four hours on their hands and a NCAA rolodex wants to put in the due dilligence to confirm Ole Miss’ APR slide and finger a culprit, I’ll abstain from organizing a public lynching.
Although I’m scouting some five-star hickorys for a certain Sham Shrimper.
