In only the second year of the NCAA releasing Academic Progress Rate reports Ohio saw all of its 20 varsity sports score above the 925 cutoff, avoiding loss-of-scholarship penalties, and proved itself as one of the top schools in the Mid-American Conference academically.
There are two main components of the NCAA's academic-reform structure: a real-time gauge in the APR, which is calculated based on a student-athlete both meeting academic-eligibility requirements and staying at a program, and the Graduation Success Rate, which supplements federal graduation rates by giving credit for students who transfer, whether incoming or outgoing.
The APR serves as the principal measurement of a team's academic success because it reflects the performance of currently enrolled students, while the GSR and other measures do not.
Associate Athletic Director Jennifer Stiles said that while the new system required each university to adapt to the change differently, Ohio did not have to conduct a major overhaul of its programs, but rather shift its mentality.
For some it was a change in thinking where before eligibility only mattered in season for a student
she said. The APR doesn't care whether you're a football player who only plays in the fall they want to know where you are every quarter because they still want you to graduate. So there's been a shift in thinking to a more year-round concern Stiles said.
With four teams ' men's and women's golf, volleyball and men's cross-country ' earning perfect scores of 1,000 and all but three teams scoring higher than the D1-A average for their sport, Stiles said the department was proud of its results.
Ohio volleyball coach Geoff Carlston said some of his favorite memories during his time in charge of the Bobcats have come when student-athletes succeed academically and that his staff strives to create a positive academic environment.
We've worked hard to create that (academic) culture on the team ' that it's important to do well
Carlston said. Some quarters are better than others
but keeping them eligible has never been an issue. But it is more that we want them to have good grades so they can go to grad school
go to med school or just to do whatever they want to do.
Out of 6,112 NCAA Division I teams, 99 programs at 65 institutions will be penalized. Ninety of those are men's teams while the remaining nine are women's. The bulk of the penalties were accrued by three sports ' 23 in football, 21 in baseball and 17 in men's basketball.How the MAC fared
As a whole, the MAC was one of the conferences hit with many penalties for low APR scores.
It's tough because if there's going to be (an outside) focus on the APR scores
it's going to fall on sports like football
and that happens to be where we were penalized
MAC Director of Compliance Brad Wachler said. On an overall basis our performance was one of the best in the country
if you look at all of the sports. Right now
we're curious as a conference to see why some of the bigger schools didn't get penalized as much as some smaller schools
