Weber State University Athletics
Weber State performs well in latest NCAA APR report
5/8/2019 5:14:00 PM | Athletics
The NCAA has announced its latest single and multi-year Academic Progress Report (APR) for NCAA Division I institutions. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation of all student-athletes on scholarship, and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
The latest multi-year APR calculations include scores from 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18. All Weber State squads were above the NCAA minimum score of 930 and 13 of the 14 programs finished above 950.Â
Weber State's men's and women's cross country teams both scored a perfect single-year score during the 2017-18 season.
WSU also had five sports (women's cross country, soccer, softball, women's tennis and volleyball) finish above the national multi-year average of 983. Soccer had the highest team multi-year average at 992, followed by women's tennis at 991, softball and volleyball at 989, and women's cross country at 988.
The Wildcat softball team had the highest multi-year rate in the Big Sky Conference and soccer was tied for the highest in the league.
The WSU football team also had its highest multi-year rate in program history at 954. The three highest scores in football's history have come in the last three years. Â
"This year's APR scores reflect the effort our student-athletes, coaches, academic advisors, and administration have made in ensuring that our student-athletes succeed in the classroom," said Will Pridemore, Weber State's Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athletes Support Services. "We invest significant time and resources in emphasizing the "student" part of student-athlete, and our APR scores reflect that effort. We will continue to be diligent in our efforts to provide the best student-athlete experience in the Big Sky Conference."
Across the nation, Division I student-athletes continue to succeed in the classroom at record-high levels. The overall four-year APR concluding with the 2017-18 academic year held steady at 983, the highest ever recorded.
Every Division I sports team calculates its Academic Progress Rate each academic year. The NCAA reports both single-year rates and four-year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. Scholarship student-athletes each semester earn one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating.
To compete in the 2019-20 postseason, teams must achieve a 930 four-year APR. NCAA members chose the 930 standard because that score predicts, on average, a 50% graduation rate for teams at that APR level. Additionally, teams must earn at least a 930 four-year APR to avoid penalties.
Since the Division I membership created the Academic Performance Program 15 years ago, more than 17,500 former student-athletes have earned APR points for their prior teams by returning to college and earning a degree after their eligibility expired.
For a complete view of the entire NCAA database, click here.