Courtesy of Southern University Athletics
BATON ROUGE, LA — Southern University Athletics produced high marks yet again as the 2018-2019 Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores were released by the NCAA, SU athletics officials announced this afternoon.
Women’s Volleyball joins Women’s Tennis as Southern University’s top academic programs, recording a perfect score of 1000 according to the report released. For the first time in recent years, eleven of SU’s athletics programs also amassed multi-year scores above the mandated 930 benchmark.
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Single year scores were led by Women’s Volleyball (1000), Women’s Track & Field (989), Women’s Basketball (982), Softball (981), Women’s Soccer (969), Women’s Cross Country (956), Baseball (949), Football (949), Men’s Track & Field (938), Women’s Bowling (938) and Women’s Tennis (929), respectively.
“It is gratifying to have another good year of APR scores, especially when reflected in the scores of our peer group across the nation,” said Roman Banks, SU’s Director of Athletics. “The APR is a team effort – student performance in the classroom, guidance of our academic staff and how well our coaches have managed their programs.
Eleven Jaguars athletic programs posted multi-year scores above the 930 threshold led by Women’s Volleyball (989), Women’s Tennis (982), Women’s Bowling (975), Women’s Soccer (965), Women’s Basketball (964), Women’s Softball (963), Women’s Track & Field (960), Football (952), Baseball (951), Women’s Cross Country (945), and Men’s Basketball (933).
“The corner stone of the football program is academics,” said Head Football Coach, Dawson Odums. “Academics are stressed from day one of the recruiting process through graduation. The expectation is that we are excellent in the classroom and that excellence will also be present on the football field. It’s a student-first focus that fits in with the holistic nature of the program. We recruit good students, who are good athletes and good people who will then go out and represent the program and the school in a positive manner once they graduate.”
“The corner stone of the football program is academics,” said Head Football Coach, Dawson Odums. “Academics are stressed from day one of the recruiting process through graduation. The expectation is that we are excellent in the classroom and that excellence will also be present on the football field. It’s a student-first focus that fits in with the holistic nature of the program. We recruit good students, who are good athletes and good people who will then go out and represent the program and the school in a positive manner once they graduate.”
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Additionally, several Southern University athletics programs made substantial improvement in single and multi-year scores over the course of the last academic year. Baseball (+69 multi-year), Women’s Cross Country (+47 multi-year), Women’s Track & Field (+49 single-year; +29 multi-year), Men’s Track & Field (+44 multi-year), Softball (+38 single-year; +29 multi-year), Football (+28 multi-year), Women’s Basketball (+35 single-year; +24 multi-year), and Women’s Volleyball (+22 single-year; +27 multi-year).
“We make a commitment to Southern University to recruit great athletes who excel in the classroom,” said Head Volleyball coach Venessa Jacobs. “Our student-athletes care about their performance both in the classroom and on the court as evident in the buy-in that they have displayed. This is a program that embodies character, discipline, and hard work and it shows with consistent successes in each area.”
Southern University was also awarded three delayed graduation points for the 2018-2019 academic cycle. Delayed graduation points are points earned for a student-athlete who has lost a point at any time during their matriculation or who did not graduate within the 10-semester requirement.
“Metrics like the APR, the SWAC all-academic awards and of course our graduates, provide us with a great opportunity to talk about the success that SU student-athletes are achieving in the classroom,” said SU’s Deputy Athletic Director & Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Trayvean Scott. “The commitment to academic excellence by our student-athletes, our coaches and our entire staff, led by the Student-Athlete Academic Support Services unit, is real. The APR release is another example of how we are getting it done the right way in competition and in the classroom at Southern University.”
The APR holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term. Currently, teams must earn a 930 four-year average APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years to participate in NCAA championships. Since 2015-2016, teams must earn a four-year APR of 930 to compete in championships.
While the APR is intended as an incentive-based approach, it does come with a progression of penalties for teams which under perform academically over time such as a reduction in practice and competition hours, increased academic activities and postseason bans.
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