Report: 41 Percent of Bowl-Bound
Schools Miss Academic Standard
ORLANDO, Fla.
Forty-one percent of bowl-bound college football teams fall below the NCAA’s new academic benchmark, and almost half of them lacked a 50 percent graduation rate, according to an annual survey released recently.
The 56 Division 1-A football teams headed to postseason bowl games have a lingering problem of too many student-athletes failing to complete their studies, says Dr. Richard Lapchick, the University of Central Florida professor who authored the annual report.
“The key is admitting students who are qualified to be in that school,” says Lapchick, who heads the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF.
This is the first year Lapchick has used the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate, known as APR, to measure the bowl-bound schools’ academic progress. In past years, the study has relied solely on graduation rates.
Developed last year, the NCAA’s new academic standard awards APR points based on how many scholarship student-athletes meet academic eligibility standards. A cutoff score of 925 means an estimated 50 percent of those student-athletes are on track to graduate.
Starting this year, NCAA schools that regularly fall below the 925 score can lose scholarships, face recruiting restrictions and miss postseason play.
In a dry run of the system last year, more than 90 percent of Division I teams across all sports had passing scores. According to Lapchick’s report, only 33 of the 56 bowl-bound teams — 59 percent — got above the 925 cutoff.
