Feb. 28, 2005
DAVIS, Calif. - As part of its movement toward academic reform, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Monday released its first-ever Academic Progress Rate (APR) data which measures members institutions that sponsor Division I sports.
UC Davis, which is in the second year of transition from Division II to Division I, currently sponsors just two Division I sports - wrestling and women's gymnastics. The university becomes an official Division I institution for its entire 26-sport athletics program beginning with the 2007-08 academic year.
APR data only includes student-athletes receiving athletics grant-in-aid, assigning points to each person under a formula that ultimately establishes a score for each Division I sport at an institution. Those scores are then compared to a national standard, which the NCAA has established at 925 - a total it projects is equal to an approximate 50 percent federal graduation rate.
Teams that do not meet the NCAA's standard score of 925 could be subjected to a reduction in athletics grant-in-aids, particular to the sports affected. Since the initial NCAA report is based upon just one year of data, no NCAA schools will face immediate penalties but the organization is using the first-ever report as an opportunity to educate its members on where they stand in order for them to make necessary corrections before penalties begin taking effect next year.
Ultimately, scores will be based upon four-year rolling data.
UC Davis' women's gymnastics team had a one-year APR score of 977 while the wrestling team had a score of 826. The composite score for the institution is 888, which itself is not tied to penalties. The university's remaining 24 sports will not report data until 2008-09 after they have completed a full year of active Division I status.
"UC Davis has a strong committment to academic excellence and we welcome the opportunity to learn from this APR report," said Director of Athletics Greg Warzecka. "We're looking closely at all of the information to see what we're doing well and where we need to improve."
Warzecka noted the APR measured just two teams at UC Davis for just one year, covering a small percentage of the total number of student-athletes at UC Davis receiving grants-in-aid. He's confident the institution's scores in the future will more closely reflect its emphasis on academic achievement when all UC Davis teams are included.
"Unfortunately, with such a small fraction of our student-athlete population covered in this APR report, it is difficult to get a true indication of what our score would be for our entire program," he said. "What it does show, though, is it's important for us to continue to educate our coaches and student-athletes about the academic standards of Division I."
APR scores are based upon a formula which awards points to student-athletes on aid who are academically eligible to compete and who are eligible to compete the next quarter or semester. Teams below the national standard are then subject to "contemporaneous penalties", the NCAA's terminology for its penalty structure. The university's wrestling team would not currently be subject to NCAA penalties because- like other UC Davis teams - it does not offer the maximum number of grants permitted by the organization.
"The NCAA is still working on many of the details of the APR, so there's much more to be learned," said Pam Gill-Fisher, Senior Associate Athletics Director. "We applaud the NCAA's emphasis on academic reform and think it'll have a positive effect on college athletics."
