NCAA Hits 99 Sports Teams With Academic Penalties
HBCUs appear disproportionately affected by new rule
INDIANAPOLIS
Ninety-nine teams at 65 colleges and universities produced failing marks under the NCAA’s new academic measurements and could begin losing scholarships next fall.
Teams that fall below the NCAA’s cutoff line would not be able to replace those scholarships when academically ineligible athletes leave school. The NCAA has limited penalties to a maximum of 10 percent of the team’s scholarships.
Football teams had the worst overall results, followed by baseball and men’s basketball. Nine women’s programs were penalized.
The NCAA also released a list of schools that consistently outperformed the academic standards. Among those were Brown University, Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Notre Dame, the three U.S. military academies and the College of William and Mary.
NCAA officials say they are pleased with the improvement over last year, when it appeared that 6 percent of schools could be sanctioned. Less than 2 percent of all teams were actually penalized because of their academic performance.
NCAA President Myles Brand attributed some of the improvement to a statistical adjustment made for squad size — something that will eventually be phased out.
