March 9, 2005

Columbia, Mo. - On February 28th, the NCAA released the initial numbers for something that's going to become an important part of your college sports vocabulary. Academic Progress Rate, or APR, is the centerpiece of the NCAA's new academic reform package. This initiative is designed to improve the academic success and graduation rates of all student-athletes.

In a recent article in the NCAA News, APR was defined in layman's term as: "(1) the real-time snapshot of every team's academic performance at a given time; (2) an APR score of 925 is what teams must meet to avoid contemporaneous penalties; and (3) teams below 925 will not be able to replace one year the grant-in-aid of players who left as academic casualties during the previous academic year."

The APR, and any potential penalties incurred by schools, will go into effect this fall, after data has been collected for the current 2004-05 academic year. The APR eventually will be comprised of four years of APR data. The APR score initially used to implement contemporaneous penalties in fall 2005 will be based on two years of APR data (i.e., 2003-04 and 2004-05). Beginning in fall 2007, the APR will be based on four years of data (i.e., 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07). Every year thereafter, the most current year's data will be added and the oldest year of data will be removed, creating a four-year rolling rate.

The initial report shows that 16 of Mizzou's 20 intercollegiate athletic sports meet the 925 cut mark for APR, meaning they would face no scholarship sanctions in the fall were these the sole numbers used for the report. Of the remaining four sports that did not meet the 925 mark, three of those fell within the confidence boundary, or a "cushion" in layman's terms, that means they would not face penalties based on their numbers. That gives MU 19 of its 20 sport programs that would not face sanctions in the fall based on these numbers alone. Again, this data is only for one year and penalties will not be in place until data from the 04-05 year is included, as well.

"In all, I think you have to be pleased with the numbers that we've established initially," said Associate Athletic Director for Academics Bryan Maggard. "This is a very new and detailed method of tracking academic progress, and I know there are a lot of people who aren't going to fully understand what these numbers mean right now. The bottom line is that we feel very good that we would not be impacted greatly based on these numbers, and while we want to be a perfect 20-for-20, I do think that's a great start," he said.

Other things Maggard noted were that MU's APR for all 20 sports combined was 943, which was above the national average of 938 for public institutions (and 4th-best in the Big 12), and very much in line with the Division I-A (schools with Division I-A football programs) average of 944. The rate for all Division I schools came in at 948, while private institutions had an average APR of 965.

It is interesting to note, that of the 5,720 teams at 328 Division I schools, about 410 teams risk penalties for not meeting the 925 standard. In other news, we recently announced that the Tigers would open the 2005 football season against Arkansas State in a game to be played September 3rd at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

The game, a home contest for Arkansas State, will kickoff at 11 a.m., and tickets go on sale April 29th. Tickets are $35, $30, $25, and $20, and it will be a very affordable event for families, as all college-age people and younger will be able to purchase tickets for half-price (at all levels except the $35 ticket). That means a family of four could purchase two adult tickets and two youth tickets in the least expensive seating level for a total of $60 to see their Tigers play an historic game at Arrowhead Stadium.

This game marks the first time in 60 years that Missouri will play in Kansas City. This game came about because Dean Lee, my counterpart at ASU, saw fit to give up their home game in Jonesboro, Ark., to bring it to the Kansas City area.

In the future, we do have a great desire to bring our football program more frequently to both sides of the state of Missouri. If the 12-game schedule eventually gets final approval, which I believe it will, then we would view that as an opportunity to play a game in Kansas City one year, and then go to St. Louis to play the next year. There are some great potential matchups we could bring to those cities, and we are very excited about the possibilities.

As always, I would like to thank-you for taking the time to read this column. If you have any questions about these topics, or anything else relating to collegiate athletics, please feel free to e-mail at aldenm@missouri.edu.