The Academic Progress Rate, APR, and Graduation Success Rate, GSR, measure the performance of collegiate programs’ student-athletes. The APR was instituted to expand upon GSR, now looking at semester-by-semester progress rather than just by graduation.
The three main components of the reform process, according to the NCAA, are student success, campus responsibility and increased accountability. The NCAA claims the APR provides a much clearer picture of the academic culture by its inclusion of “eligibility, retention and graduation.” The people that work or have worked within the system everyday can provide their own unique perspectives on it.
The Former Athletic Director’s Perspective
“It changed the culture of athletes and academic success on campus. They are held accountable for it. Coaches take it with them wherever they go. They leave one school, go to another, they have a bad APR, it goes with them,” Turner said.
A sincere focus must be placed on academics and students coming to college to learn. If it is not, coaches know there will be consequences.
“I think they definitely feel compelled to spend more time on the academics. This is the first time the NCAA has applied any kind of academic measure that could impact your competitive success. That’s what has changed the culture,” Turner said.
While Turner notes the impact it has had, it wasn’t the reform he and the group he worked with initially wanted. The original proposal he worked on developing at Vanderbilt was based on the foundation that if a student is not determined in good academic standing, you couldn’t replace a student until their class would have graduated.
“That’s real simple. It became more complex with the ideas of retention and progress toward a degree,” Turner said.
Working toward that reform was difficult all along with resistance from those who favored the status quo.
“It caused a lot of consternation on the part of coaches, particularly basketball coaches. They were really upset. I met with them several times as a group, along with Myles Brand to try to explain what we were doing,” Turner said.
Turner and other reformers got the Southeastern Conference to begrudgingly support their concept of reform nationally. But it was tabled in favor of the ‘5-8 rule.’ For basketball, it said you could only give eight scholarships over a two-year period and then five within one year. Once the APR and academic reform was made in 2004, this was no longer necessary.
He faced many challenges in trying to create the best and most fair system of evaluation as the chair of the Working Group on Incentives and Disincentives.
“Part of the struggle on our APR committee was we tried to find incentives as opposed to just all disincentives and we just continually struck out with that, arriving at the point where the best incentive is to not get a disincentive,” Turner said.
You do not see any incentives in the APR because the research showed there was no solid way to incorporate them.
“The reason they didn’t like the idea we proposed at Vanderbilt was because it didn’t appear to them there was any way to get incentives. Everything was a disincentive. But at the end of the day, after we did all the research, nothing was developed that could be an incentive. That was one of the issues,” Turner said.
It may not be the perfect system but Turner is pleased with what has come about.
“It could always be made better. I wish it was a little bit easier to administer and simpler. I just think it’s been a positive cultural change for collegiate athletics. It’s ground in the tradition of intercollegiate athletics, which supports the academic development of students,” Turner said.
The Academic Services’ Perspective
“I tell recruits we do three things. One, I am a liaison between the faculty and staff on campus and the student-athlete. Two, I want to make sure that you’re eligible each and every quarter. Three, and most importantly, I want to make sure that when they walk into this university, that their moms and dads know they’re going to walk out of here with a degree,” Kelly said.
His department works to ease the transition for student-athletes, who must not only deal with moving up from high school to college but are also thrown into demanding athletic schedules.
“We have a class first quarter of their freshman year called Student-Athlete Experience, where we go over time management, study skills, they take tests on NCAA rules, so they understand what they have to do, what they can’t do,” Kelly said.
For those students that thrive, there is recognition.
“As a department we’ve set up this program called the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. It’s about 250 names of students who all have above a 3.0 the previous quarter. We all try to do things as a department and then each of our coaches does things,” Kelly said.
The department as a whole also rewards the cream of the crop, what it calls the ‘400 Club.’ These are student-athletes who received a 4.0 GPA for a given quarter. They are recognized with a t-shirt that says ‘Ohio University 400 Club.’
There have been some very impressive student-athletes at programs at Ohio University. The volleyball team earned a public recognition for the 2009-2010 academic year, ranking in the top 10 percent of volleyball programs nationally.
In his position, Kelly is around coaches who not only have to be winners on the field but also in the classroom. He sees the effects it has on them.
“No coach wants to be an embarrassment to their university. No coach wants to lose practice time, and that’s one of the penalties. No coach wants to lose scholarships,” Kelly said.
He also sees how student-athletes must deal with the pressure.
“It’s very difficult. It’s so time-consuming. The amount of class they miss, how tired their bodies can be from the rigors of a season, the rigors of practice, and still having to be successful in the classroom. It’s stressful, they’re tired, but they take it very seriously,” Kelly said.
While much has been made of one-and-done college athletes, such as Derrick Rose and John Wall, Kelly believes that the rule only helps student-athletes.
“Any time at college makes you a better person, makes you more mature. I mean you’re getting educated in your dorm room. There’s so much education to be gained through college and it doesn’t all come through going to the classroom. It comes through socially, learning how to get along with different people,” Kelly said.
The Student-Athlete’s Perspective
“No matter what, you’re going to have those stereotypes but you need to do what you have to do to not fall into them and keep your grades up and perform well on the field too,” Weller said.
But Weller works hard to defy that stereotype. The redshirt freshman ended his first year at school with a 3.2 GPA. Now with classes becoming more difficult, Weller must not only work harder but also utilize the resources around him.
“I work a lot with the tutors recently because the classes are starting to get harder. The tutors are available, so I’ve been taking advantage of them and it’s been helping out,” Weller said.
As a student coming into college, there are numerous challenges. Most freshmen students have to deal with the typical academic and social adjustments. But athletes also must deal with the time commitment to their sport.
“It took about two quarters to get used to the practices and going to class and having to study. It was a pretty tough adjustment those first couple of quarters but after that it’s just a matter of routine and sticking with it,” Weller said.
Student-athletes must also balance credit hours along with travel and practice schedules. During their season, they take fewer hours but then must make that up sometime down the line. Many will take 12 hours in-season and then make up for it down the line.
“That’s a nice thing to have a lighter load in the fall, especially when you’re traveling and having so much practice time everyday,” Weller said.
Coaches also sometimes get a bad wrap in academic aspects. Weller has seen them as nothing but helpful.
“They’re on top of you with grades. That’s one of the first things they ask when they have meetings, is how your grades are, before we even talk about your performance on the field,” Weller said.
While he relishes his opportunities as a Division I athlete and looks forward to the future, Weller knows that an education is a must.
“Like anybody else, I’d like to be able to go to the next level and be able to be paid to play the sport. I’m staying realistic and hopefully the performance will speak for itself and allow me to do that. But if not, I’ll have the education needed to get a job,” Weller said.
Trends and Issues
The NCAA touts progress and rising numbers in its academic reform. The APR is calculated on a scale of 0-1000. According to four-year APR averages from 2004-2005 to 2007-2008, just 9.5 percent of schools fell below an APR of 925. In the last APR released in 2009, 90 percent of teams scored more 925, up from 88 percent the year before.
While overall trends show improvement since the Knight Commission’s reform was put together in 2004 and enacted beginning with 2006 season, there are still glaring disparities between races and genders. A 2009 report from the University of Central Florida's The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) shows that 21 of the 67 schools that reached bowl games graduated less than 50 percent of their players, up from the year before. Only four schools had black players with higher graduation rates than white players.
A 2010 study done by TIDES looks at Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate of Division I NCAA women’s and men’s basketball tournament teams. It compares that of white and black players. On the whole, women’s teams far surpassed men’s in the results. The study states that “white male basketball student‐athletes on tournament bound teams graduate at a rate of 84 percent versus only 56 percent of African‐American male basketball student‐athletes. White female basketball student‐athletes on tournament bound teams graduate at 90 percent compared to 78 percent of African‐American female basketball student‐athletes who graduate.”
The differences in success between races and genders are striking. Reform has brought about positives but has still not addressed this issue. However, Todd Turner does not believe it is a fault of the system.
“The methodology is gender and race neutral. The main thing is a performance and preparation issue. Women do better and minorities tend to do less,” Turner said.
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