Great numbers for Georgia

Football team posts highest academic results in SEC; Auburn struggles

BY DAVID CHING - dching@ledger-enquirer.com --

It's not the conference championship most Georgia fans want to win, but the Bulldogs' football team has already claimed its first Southeastern Conference title of the year.

The NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Rate report on Tuesday and the Georgia football team's multi-year score of 965, well above the national football average of 934, was the highest of any team in the SEC.

APR is a point total that measures schools' success retaining student-athletes and keeping them eligible and on pace to graduate. The score for each team comes from a four-year period ending the prior school year.

The average APR for all student-athletes is 961 out of a perfect 1,000. Teams that do not maintain an overall 925 APR -- which translates to an approximate 60 percent graduation success rate -- are subject to penalties, which can be as stiff as scholarship losses or postseason bans.

In Georgia's case, the Bulldogs posted the second-highest SEC score in men's basketball (958) and were third in the league in women's hoops (971).

Georgia's other scores were mostly positive as all 20 sports represented on the report were above the 925 cutoff and 14 ranked at or above the national average for that particular sport.

"I'm especially pleased with our standing among other SEC schools," Georgia athletic director Damon Evans said in a press release. "However, even though our scores are good, we are committed to ongoing efforts at strengthening the academic performance of our student-athletes on a daily basis."

Georgia's baseball team (927) and indoor and outdoor track teams (both with 926) were the three men's squads to score below the national averages for their sports. Women's soccer (952), volleyball (966) and tennis (963) also scored below national averages.

The results were not as positive for Auburn, which had only six of 20 teams score at or above the national average for their respective sport, including several below the 925 cutoff.

Six out of Auburn's nine men's teams reflected on the report scored below the national average. Those that scored above were football (953), cross country (972) and golf, which received an NCAA public recognition award for its 1,000 score. Among Auburn's 11 women's sports on the report, only cross country (970), golf (976) and soccer (979) were at or above the national averages.

Auburn had four teams score below the 925 cutoff -- men's basketball (905), baseball (924), men's indoor track (914) and men's outdoor track (912). Women's basketball scored exactly 925.

Those teams would be subject to immediate penalties if a player left the program while academically ineligible, meaning they wouldn't be allowed to fill the scholarship the following year.

The NCAA requires any school with a team that scores less than 925 to develop an academic improvement plan with specific goals and steps to meet them. Teams that score below 900 must submit their plan to the NCAA for approval.

Auburn's men's basketball program could have been subject to "historical penalties" -- handed out because of poor performance over a period of time -- for its score, but demonstrated improvement this year spared the Tigers from punishment. The team scored a 1,000 over the last year to raise its multi-year average past the 900 threshold.

Teams scoring below 900 for two straight years face scholarship and practice time restrictions. Starting next year, teams that score below 900 for a third straight year face possible restrictions on postseason appearances.

Of Alabama's 21 sports on the report, 14 were above the national average and none were below the 925 cutoff. Two Crimson Tide teams won public recognition awards -- women's cross country, which also scored a perfect 1,000, and volleyball (995). Women's rowing also scored a 1,000, but did not win an award because it has only been a varsity program at Alabama since fall 2006.

Five Alabama men's teams -- baseball (931), outdoor track (927), indoor track (933), cross country (955) and swimming (966) -- finished below the national averages, while women's golf (970) and basketball (932) were also below their sports' averages.

Thirteen of Georgia Tech's 17 teams scored above the national average and none scored below the 925 cutoff. On the men's side, only tennis (959), cross country (950) and outdoor track (949) were below the national averages, while basketball (957) was the only women's sport to fall below the national average.

Tech's men's golf team also received a public recognition award for a 1,000 score.

NCAA President Myles Brand said 6,272 Division I teams were graded in Tuesday's report, 218 of which will be sanctioned for poor performance. For the first time, nationwide eligibility and retention rates both rose in the same year.

Contact David Ching at 706-571-8571