INDIANAPOLIS
The NCAA has approved a way to identify teams with long-term academic problems and will begin assessing penalties starting in 2007-2008, including postseason bans and the loss of scholarships.
The new system, unanimously approved by the Division I board of directors over two days of meetings in Indianapolis late last week, examines graduation rates over rolling four-year periods for individual teams.
Programs that don’t make the grade will get warning letters next spring; the penalties will begin the year after that. Between 60 and 120 Division I teams could be below the cutoff, says NCAA vice president Kevin C. Lennon.
The number actually penalized likely will be less than that, however, because of various mitigating factors.
The system is based on Academic Performance Rates, which are measured on a 1,000-point scale. The association already is implementing a system of short-term penalties based on a cutoff of 925 that’s taken year-to-year.
The long-term guidelines set a lower benchmark of 900 over four year periods. “They are the most severe penalties teams can incur, for the worst of the worst,” says Walter Harrison, the NCAA’s chairman of academic performance.
