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MU Athletic Teams Rank High Nationally in Academics

MU received most academic awards of any public BCS institution

April 24, 2008

COLUMBIA, Mo. - University of Missouri student-athletes are not merely champions on the playing fields, tracks, golf courses and pools; they also excel in the classroom. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced today that MU sports teams were among the top 25 schools in the nation recognized with Public Recognition Awards. The MU teams were recognized were men's golf, women's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, women's swimming, women's indoor track and women's outdoor track.

The Public Recognition Awards are given to individual sport teams that have an Academic Progress Rate (APR) in the top 10 percent of their respective sport. The APR is determined by tracking retention and academic progress of each scholarship student-athlete.

"We are very proud of our student-athletes for their accomplishments in their specific sports and in the classroom," MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said. "They represent the university with their dedication and hard work, and it is gratifying that they are being recognized for their academic accomplishments."

	Big 12 Conference Honorees
	Rank	Institution	Sports Recognized
	1.	Missouri	7
	2.	Kansas	3
		Oklahoma St.	3
	4.	Nebraska	1
		Texas A&M	1
		Texas	1
	7.	All Others	0

MU led the Big 12 Conference with seven teams recognized, while the rest of the Big 12 combined had nine teams recognized. The University of Kansas and Oklahoma State University were the next highest Big 12 institutions with three teams recognized with Public Recognition Awards. Only six Bowl Championship Series (BCS) institutions had more teams recognized than Missouri. Nationally, only 24 schools had more teams recognized, and many of those, including Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth, were private institutions. Mizzou was first in the nation among public BCS schools.

"We are pleased that the academic accomplishments of our student-athletes allow us to reflect the great international respect higher education has for the entire University of Missouri," Athletic Director Mike Alden said. "This certainly is a tribute to the best faculty, staff, advisors and support systems in the country at the flagship institution of the state of Missouri."

The NCAA website has links to this data, available both by sport, and by school. Other facts that can be gleaned from the information...

• Mizzou had seven teams recognized, which was over twice the amount of the next-most recognized schools in the Big 12 Conference (Kansas and Oklahoma State each had three sports recognized). In fact, Mizzou's seven was nearly as much as the rest of the Big 12 combined (nine total from the other 11 schools)…
• There are only three public schools ahead of Missouri on the list: Navy, William & Mary and New Hampshire.  Among FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) public schools, Missouri is tops on the list…
• There are only five BCS conference or BCS-affiliated independent schools ahead of Missouri: Duke, Notre Dame, Boston College, Stanford and Northwestern. With all five of these schools being private, Mizzou ranks tops among public BCS schools in number of sport leaders…

Here's the national count for schools with the most sports recognized. There are a total of 330 Division I schools in the country, and 192 that received recognition with this award:

Rank	Institution	Sports Recognized	Type	Division	FBS Affiliation
1.	Yale	28	Private	FCS	-
2.	Dartmouth	24	Private	FCS	-
3.	Brown	21	Private	FCS	-
4.	Penn	20	Private	FCS	-
5.	Princeton	19	Private	FCS	-
6.	Harvard	18	Private	FCS	-
7.	Bucknell	17	Private	FCS	-
8.	Holy Cross	15	Private	FCS	-
	Lehigh	15	Private	FCS	-
10.	Davidson	14	Private	FCS	-
11.	Colgate	13	Private	FCS	-
	Lafayette	13	Private	FCS	-
13.	Duke	12	Private	FBS	BCS
	Georgetown	12	Private	FCS	-
	Navy	12	Public	FBS	Indep.
16.	Cornell	11	Private	FCS	-
	Notre Dame	11	Private	FBS	BCS
18.	Boston College	10	Private	FBS	BCS
	Stanford	10	Private	FBS	BCS
20.	Columbia	9	Private	FCS	-
21.	William & Mary	8	Public	FCS	-
	Northwestern	8	Private	FBS	BCS
	Rice	8	Private	FBS	C-USA
	New Hampshire	8	Public	FCS	-
25.	MIZZOU	7	Public	FBS	BCS
	Fairfield	7	Private	FCS	-
	Villanova	7	Private	FCS	-

 

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