The Academic Progress Rate (APR) bears a strong resemblance to long snappers or punters: No one cares about them until they’re crap.
While few outside the NCAA, its member institutions and diehard fans actually understand what the APR is and how the potentially debilitating number is calculated, it remains a very important benchmark for every athletic program – just ask Oklahoma State.
Inadequate academic performance can result in practice reductions, scholarship limits and even postseason bans, all of which can destroy a college football program, as explained by the NCAA in the following:
Beginning with 2012-13 championships, teams must earn a minimum 900 four-year APR or a 930 average over the most recent two years to be eligible to participate. For 2014-15 championships, teams must earn a 930 four-year average APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years to participate in championships. In 2015-16 and beyond, teams must earn a four-year APR of 930 to compete in championships.
Those satisfactory scores are calculated using the following using the logic:
It’s a term-by-term calculation of the eligibility and retention of all student-athletes. A score of a thousand means every student-athlete on that team stayed eligible and returned to school. You begin losing points for students who are not eligible and/or are not retained.
As we get crawl toward the rankings that actually matter, let’s re-rank the Week 6 AP poll according to the most recent annual NCAA scores, from worst scores to best.
Check out all of the 2014 re-rankings here.
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