Mountaineers teams all clear in latest APR report

COMMENTARY

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The NCAA’s latest Academic Progress Rate report surfaced Wednesday, and if you haven’t heard much about how your favorite school fared, that’s a good thing.

Two men’s basketball programs, Alcorn State and Savannah State, failed to meet the four-year minimum APR score of 930 and won’t be allowed to taste March Madness next season. Five FCS football programs received postseason bans (all of them HBCUs), but no FBS programs fell below the cutoff, which is a godsend for the expanding glut of bowl games.

All of West Virginia’s teams landed in the safe zone, which you’d expect given the resources Power 5 schools devote to keeping athletes eligible. Bob Huggins’ basketball team even managed a perfect score of 1,000 for the entire four-year period, quite a feat with all the outgoing transfers during the first half of that cycle. (Texas was the only other Big 12 men’s hoops program to bat 1,000 in the multiyear period.)

MORE: The NCAA’s searchable APR database

Other nuggets regarding West Virginia’s APR report:

• The Mountaineers football program checked in at 945, only seventh in the 10-team Big 12, though not a cause for the level of nailbiting they’re enduring at Texas Tech (941), Kansas (936) and TCU (935). Among the 64 Power 5 football schools, West Virginia’s four-year average ranked tied with Florida State for 60th. (The FBS average score was 964.)

• Rowing joined men’s basketball as the other WVU sport with a perfect four-year score.

• Women’s basketball (995) ranked second-best in the Big 12.

• WVU’s baseball team, which rallied to avoid sanctions two years ago, still ranks next to last in the Big 12 with a 948 score.

• West Virginia women’s volleyball (949) ranked last in the Big 12, though that’s partly a product of no other conference program finishing below 979.

While conference rankings provide context, West Virginia teams aren’t competing against teams in their league so much as they’re competing against the 930 number. And being on the high side of that benchmark is really sufficient, though a barely-above-water score could signal trouble if the ensuing academic year’s results drag down the four-year average. Thus, athletics director Shane Lyons applauded what essentially was good news Wednesday.

“I am delighted that our overall average has increased by five points from last year’s average,” Lyons said. “Overall, our average score of 979 is strong, and I’m pleased with our academic progress.”





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