How Did The Underdogs Do In The Classroom? The APR Scores Are Out.

Today, Wednesday, April 20th, the Academic Progress Report, or APR, numbers for thousands of college athletic programs were released to the public. For many, as long as the number doesn't get their favorite team into trouble, it's hardly worth mentioning.

However, such numbers are very important to every single athletic program under the NCAA banner. A couple of bad academic years could keep a program out of the post season or limit the amount of practice time or scholarships they could use.

So what is this APR?

The APR is the NCAA method of making sure student-athletes stay in class. Think of it as basically a retention percentage for a team. You can read on how APR is calculated here.

Basically, every student-athlete who received any kind of of athletically-related financial aid is worth two points. One for being academically eligible and one for staying on the program through the full term. You take the points earned, divide it by the max points possible, multiply that number by 1,000 and you have a single-year APR score.

The publicized number is a delayed four-year rolling average; the numbers released in 2016 are for the period ending with the 2014-15 academic term, which is done to ensure accuracy. So one bad academic season won't hinder a program, but two or more will have long-term repercussions.

There have also been alterations to the APR process, which include bonus points for returning scholarship student-athletes who get their degree and those who transfer after the spring semester. That timeline can be read here.

Starting two years ago, the average score threshold for post-season bans raised from 900 to 930, with a waiver for programs whose last two years' average was above 940. Now the standard is just a four-year score of 930. Teams who fall below the 930 benchmark also incur NCAA punishments regarding practice time, scholarship limitations or even termination of coaches in tiers, which is explained here.

The NCAA once said a four-year rolling score of 930 equates to 50% of a team graduating, but that isn't a strict marker.

For each team covered here at UnderdogDynasty.com, we have made a chart showing the last four years of APR scores. These are the four-year rolling averages, not the individual scores. The year in parenthesis is the year that score was released. The "2014-15 (2016)" scores are the ones just released today.

Independents

Yes we're counting Coastal Carolina as an independent as they will be an "FCS Independent" next season as they begin the FBS transition process.

American Athletic

Conference USA

-Charlotte did not have an active football program with scholarship student-athletes until the 2012 season (started playing in 2013) and thus did not have APR scores until 2013-14.

-UTEP did not incur any penalties in 2013 due to the post-season penalties line still being at 900 as well as 2014 due to having a most-recent two-year APR over 940.

-UAB discontinued their football program in December 2015 and thus, didn't release football APR scores in 2015. The program will return with scholarship student-athletes in Fall 2016 (restart playing in Fall 2017) and have APR scores again in 2018.

Sun Belt

-In 2014, Idaho was put on Level 1 penalties (going from 20 to 16 practice hours a week) and given a post-season ban for scoring below a 930 four-year APR.

-In 2014, New Mexico State was put on Level 1 penalties (going from 20 to 16 practice hours a week), but was not given a post-season ban for scoring below a 930 four-year APR as they met the "Limited-Resource Institution" four-year benchmark of 910 in 2014. At least I believe so, since there was no given explanation otherwise.

-In 2015, Idaho was granted a waiver of no penalties despite a four-year APR score of 896 due to a single-year APR score of 948 for the 2013-14 academic term.

-For this season, while Idaho is still below the threshold of 930 at 904, they aren't being penalized according to their public report. Probably due to the 957 single-year score.