The NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) data Wednesday, and multiple Tennessee sports posted record scores.
Every Division I sports team across the nation calculates its APR each academic year, like a report card. Scholarship student-athletes each semester earn one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating.
Data released for this multi-year cohort includes scores from the 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 and 2015-16 academic years. For APR purposes, scores for indoor and outdoor track & field are computed together, so Tennessee has 18 teams/sports that are scored.
Nine Tennessee teams earned a perfect 1,000 single-year APR for the 2018-19 academic year: men's basketball, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's golf, softball, women's swimming & diving, men's track & field, women's track & field and volleyball.
Last week, it was reported that six of the aforementioned Tennessee athletic programs earned coveted Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA after scoring in the top 10 percent of their Division I peers in this year's APR release (men's cross country, women's cross country, men's golf, softball, women's track & field and volleyball). Those same six programs also earned perfect 1,000
multi-year APR scores—the highest number of teams in school history for a multi-year dataset.
In multi-year data, 11 of Tennessee's 18 scored teams tied or increased their marks from last year. And 13 of UT's teams earned multi-year scores equal to or higher than the national average of all Division I programs in their respective sports.
Men's basketball posted its highest multi-year APR in program history with a 974. That is a nine-point improvement from last year's data and a 15-point surge over the last two years.
"Our student-athletes continue to take care of business in the classroom, and these numbers reflect that commitment to excellence," UT Director of Athletics
Phillip Fulmer said. "This is the result of extraordinary effort and discipline on behalf of our student-athletes, as well as the dedication and hard work of our outstanding support staff and coaches.
"Everything works together thanks to the wonderful resources we have—resources made possible by the support of our fans through ticket sales and the impact of our donors through the Tennessee Fund."
Every Division I sports program submits data to have its Academic Progress Rate calculated each academic year. The NCAA reports both single-year rates and four-year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member-provided data. APRs for each team, lists of teams receiving public recognition and those receiving sanctions are available online through the NCAA's searchable database.
SPORT-SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS
- Men's basketball posted a program-record multi-year AP score of 974—a nine-point improvement from last year
- Men's cross country posted a perfect 1,000 multi-year APR for the fourth consecutive year
- Men's golf posted a perfect 1,000 multi-year APR—its highest in program history
- Soccer's multi-year APR of 987 tied the program record, set just last year
- Women's swimming & diving improved its multi-year APR for the fourth consecutive year—its score of 998 is a program record
- Women's track & field posted a perfect 1,000 multi-year APR for the fifth consecutive year
- Volleyball's perfect 1,000 multi-year APR score was its highest since 2004-05—the program's multi-year score has increased for four consecutive years, including a surge of 16 points from last year