MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Keeping pace with Division I trends, all 17 of West Virginia’s varsity sports posted acceptable Academic Progress Rates for 2013-14, according to the NCAA’s latest report card.
Teams scoring below 930 face postseason bans or practice limitations, but those penalties are becoming rare among Division I schools and essentially extinct in the Power Five conferences, which devote abundant resources to keeping athletes on pace to graduate.
At West Virginia, only two sports are close to peril: baseball (937) and wrestling (932).
The rest of the Mountaineers’ teams were in safe to exceptional range: men’s basketball 978; women’s basketball 995; cross country 996; football 942; gymnastics 1,000; rifle 973; rowing 1,000; men’s soccer 978; women’s soccer 990; men’s swimming and diving 976; women’s swimming and diving 983; tennis 955; indoor track and field 988; outdoor track and field 988; and volleyball 948.
West Virginia’s football APR ranked seventh in the Big 12 behind Kansas State (976), Oklahoma (963), Baylor (960), Texas (958), Iowa State (951) and Kansas (945). Trailing WVU was Texas Tech (936), TCU (936) and Oklahoma State (934).
Among the D-I teams facing postseason ineligibility in 2015-2016, all are mid-majors or historically black universities that typically don’t have lavish academic centers or large staffs:
Baseball: Campbell, Mississippi Valley State
Football: Alabama State, Florida A&M, Gardner-Webb, Savannah State, Tennessee State
Men’s basketball: Alcorn State, Florida A&M, Stetson, Central Arkansas
Men’s cross country: Florida A&M
Men’s golf: Prairie View A&M, Idaho
Men’s indoor track and field: Fairleigh Dickinson-Metropolitan Campus, Florida A&M, Prairie View A&M
Men’s outdoor track and field: Florida A&M, Prairie View A&M
Men’s soccer: Howard
Women’s basketball: Savannah State