May 6, 2009
LAS VEGAS - The NCAA released the Division I Academic Progress Rates (APR), penalty reports and aggregate data for all NCAA Division I institutions on Wednesday, which illustrated the positive progress that UNLV Athletics is making academically.
The most recent APR scores are multi-year rates based on the scores from the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years, and show that 15 of UNLV's 17 sports programs have better four-year scores than their four-year scores released a year ago. Of those 15 squads, baseball made the largest improvement, going from a score of 876 for the 2006-07 academic year to 914 for the 2007-08 academic year, which was an improvement of 38 points.
Also, among those 15 teams are three teams that earned perfect four-year scores of 1000 (men's golf, women's tennis and volleyball). Those squads are the first teams in school history to achieve such a feat and were recognized last month in the nation's top 10 percent in their respective sports, when the NCAA released the APR's public recognition awards.
With three programs recognized in the top 10 percent, UNLV was tied for first in the Mountain West Conference with Air Force for having the most sports earning the public recognition awards. And among Football Bowl Subdivision schools in the region (MWC, WAC and Pac-10), only Stanford had more teams in the top 10 percent (11 total). UNLV was tied for second among that group with USC and Air force with three each.
The overall four-year APR for UNLV, which is comprised of all UNLV scholarship student-athletes in a four-year period, also reached an all-time high with a score of 935. Additionally, for the first time since 2004-05, no UNLV team is subject to any historical or contemporaneous APR penalties.
"I am so proud of our student-athletes for their work in the classroom," said UNLV Athletics Director Mike Hamrick. "Our APR is the highest it has ever been and to not have any penalties is outstanding. The fact that nearly every program at UNLV improved its APR score - and that we had three sports earn perfect scores - shows the commitment that our student-athletes and coaches are putting into academics while also remaining competitive on the fields and courts."
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. A score of 1000 means that the institution has met the goals of retention and satisfactory degree progress for 100 percent of each of its student-athletes in a given time period. A score of 900 equates to 90 percent, 800 equals 80 percent, and so forth.
Wednesday's full NCAA release may be found at the NCAA website (http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=49719).
When just looking at UNLV's one-year APR scores for 2007-08, 16 of its 17 sports programs earned better scores than in 2006-07. Of those teams, men's soccer made the largest year-to-year improvement - going from a score of 851 in 2006-07 to 1000 for 2007-08, an improvement of 149 points.
Among those 16 teams, seven earned perfect one-year scores of 1000 (men's golf, men's soccer, men's tennis, cross country, women's golf, women's tennis and volleyball), which is the largest number of teams to achieve such a high standard in UNLV history. The previous single-year high was five teams in 2005-06 and is three more teams than achieved the perfect score in 2006-07.
The overall one-year APR, which is composed of all UNLV scholarship student-athletes in a one-year period, also reached an all-time high in 2007-08 with a score of 964, besting the previous one-year high score of 944 set in 2004-05.
