UA football makes appeal to NCAA
By Eric Swedlund
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
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The UA's baseball and football teams are at risk of losing scholarships next fall under NCAA academic progress figures released Wednesday, although the football team is appealing.
The squads are among 99 Division I sports teams at 65 universities that fall below NCAA Academic Progress Rate standards, with the organization's academic reform efforts now hitting the penalty phase.
Starting this fall, underperforming teams will not be able to replace academically ineligible players who leave school, essentially losing those scholarships for one year.
At the University of Arizona, 18 teams meet the NCAA requirement of an APR rating of 925 or higher — equating roughly to a graduation rate of 50 percent.
But baseball and football fall below that threshold, at 865 and 882 respectively. The baseball team faces the maximum penalty, with 10 percent of its 11.7 scholarships at risk if academically ineligible players leave the team.
Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose, senior associate athletic director, said the UA has filed an appeal for the football program.
"We feel we have some real extenuating circumstances that surround the number of coaching changes we've gone through in five years," LaRose said. "That's been very disruptive to the academic progress of some of our students."
The Arizona football program has had four coaches in the last six seasons.
Dick Tomey left after the 2000 season. He was followed by John Mackovic (2001, '02 and part of '03), interim coach Mike Hankwitz (finished the 2003 season) and current coach Mike Stoops, who started in 2004.
LaRose said she expects to find out today or Friday whether the appeal was granted. She would not say how many of the football team's 85 scholarships are at risk, pending the outcome of the appeal.
The NCAA did not release the UA's full APR report because of the appeal, but athletic officials provided the Star with the APR data.
The UA is one of eight schools to appeal its APR penalties, joining Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, San Diego State University, San Jose State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Kansas and Tulane University.
Nationwide, 90 of the teams that will lose scholarships are men's teams, and nine are women's.
Football tops the list with 23 teams, followed by baseball with 21 teams and men's basketball with 17 teams.
The APR was approved by the NCAA in April 2005, and last year's scores were a dry run.
Starting this year, teams can be penalized, and those that continue to post subpar scores could receive more severe punishments, such as the loss of postseason eligibility.
Who is affected by the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate standards
99
The amount of Division I sports teams at 65 universities that could lose scholarships.
1.17
The number of scholarships that
could be lost out of 11.7 given to
UA baseball each season.
All 3
The number of Division I universities in Arizona affected by the ruling. All are in danger of losing scholarships.
I don't want to stray from Buckeye related themes, but I'd like to add to Mili's post. UH really struggles in recruiting. The quality private school kids go to the mainland, for the most part. The public school kids struggle to qualify, and even if they get in, it's a battle to graduate them. In terms of recruiting mainland high school guys, it takes a unique kid to come out this far. Homesickness, culture shock, lack of playing time takes some here. That leaves the JC's. Everyone knows the risk there. The UH coaches do the best they can, team GPA and graduation rates are increasing, but these APR figures will be tough for a school like UH. Back to the Bucks, anyone wonder what the pre-Tressel score would have been? I don't mean that as a slam to the past staff, more of a compliment to how guys are performing now.
