April 24, 2008
The Vanderbilt men’s basketball and men’s cross country teams were honored with public recognition awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores in a statement made on Thursday by the NCAA.
The men’s basketball and cross country teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The 712 teams recognized this year represent 11.4 percent of the 6,272 Division I teams. The list includes 401 women’s teams and 311 men’s or mixed squads. Vanderbilt was one of six SEC schools to be honored with a public recognition from the NCAA, and one of only two league schools to have two sports make the list.
The Academic Progress Rate is a reform initiative by the NCAA to keep institutions accountable for making sure their athletes graduate and is measured by eligibility and retention. Poor scores by an institution could result in sanctions and loss of scholarships for that perspective sport.
The Vanderbilt men’s cross country team was the only SEC team recognized in Wednesday’s report and one of only 33 men’s cross country teams nationally to be honored.
“Our guys are non-scholarship runners who are the epitome of a student-athlete,” said men’s cross country coach Steven Keith. “They take their running very seriously and compete in a very tough conference, but they are here for the education.”
The men’s basketball team is also the only SEC men’s basketball team on the list and one of only 33 teams honored nationwide amongst the 340 Division I men’s basketball programs.
“We’re proud of our players’ Academic Performance Rate,” said head men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings. “This latest report reflects our performance in our recent history, a reality that has seen every senior who has completed his eligibility since the late 1970’s receive his degree. We’re proud of the fact that our players can compete nationally on the playing floor and get a very meaningful degree in the process.”
For the second consecutive year, Yale University had the most teams (28) recognized. By conference, the Ivy Group had by far the most number of teams honored (150), followed by the Patriot League (89) and the Big East Conference (47). The SEC had eight (8) teams recognized in this year’s report.
By sport, women’s tennis featured the most teams (46), followed by women’s volleyball (41) and women’s golf (39). The men’s sport with the highest number of teams were basketball and cross country (both with 33) and golf (32). This is the first year that basketball led men’s sports.
Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized. There are fewer awards this year than last year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores. In some sports, teams had to maintain a perfect score over the four-year period in order to be recognized.
