May 17, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS – Six University of Dayton athletics programs received 2011 Academic Progress Rate (APR) public recognition awards, as the NCAA honored Division I sports teams for their latest multi-year APR scores.
The Flyer teams honored were football, men’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s golf and women’s rowing.
Dayton football was one of two programs honored from the Pioneer Football League. UD football has been honored with an APR public recognition award for six consecutive years – every time since the APR was instituted. They are in an elite group. Dayton is one of 10 football teams to earn the honor all six years. The others are: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania and Yale.
The UD men’s and women’s golf teams have also earned the recognition for the sixth consecutive year. Dayton is one of four universities to have both its golf programs earn APR recognition all six years. The others are: Bucknell, Dartmouth and Yale.
The men’s basketball team has been recognized four of the last five years. The Flyers are one of 22 teams to be honored in at least four of the six years of the APR public recognition awards. The others are: Belmont, BYU, Brown, Holy Cross, Columbia, Davidson, Princeton, Navy, UNC-Chapel Hill and Yale recognized all six years; Bucknell, Harvard, Rider and Pennsylvania honored five times; and Dayton, Elon, Loyola, Illinois-Champaign, Kansas, UNC-Wilmington, Notre Dame and Villanova earning recognition four times.
The UD rowing team has also earned the APR recognition award four times. The Flyers are among nine teams to earn the distinction at least four times. The teams include: Bucknell, Dartmouth, Dayton, Georgetown, Lehigh, MIT, Navy, Sacred Heart and Yale.
The Flyer women’s basketball team has earned APR recognition for three consecutive years. They are one of 13 teams that received the honor this year, and also earned a berth to the 2011 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. The teams are: Dayton, DePaul, Duke, Georgia, Green Bay, Kansas State, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Princeton, Samford, South Dakota State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
Each year the NCAA honors selected Division I sports teams by publicly recognizing their latest multi-year NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR). This announcement is part of the overall Division I academic reform effort and is intended to highlight teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports. Specifically, these teams posted multi-year APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport.
The effort is part of a public recognition program the Division I Board of Directors approved in January 2006. A record 909 teams were honored in 2011. The 909 teams publicly recognized this year for high achievement represent 14 percent of the 6,385 eligible Division I teams. The list includes 525 women’s teams and 384 men’s or mixed squads.
In 2007, 839 teams were recognized, in 2008 712 were honored, in 2009 the number was 767, and in 2010 there were 841 teams honored.
By conference, the Atlantic 10 was fifth with 56 programs honored, only behind Ivy Group (135), Patriot League (82), Big East Conference (77), and Atlantic Coast Conference (61).
The most recent APRs are based on scores from the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. The NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team through its innovative APR, which provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement. By measuring eligibility and retention each semester or quarter, the APR provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.
Full APR scores for all teams will be released May 24.
