April 20, 2016
DeKALB, Ill. – For the 10th consecutive year, each of Northern Illinois University’s sport programs has surpassed the academic progress standards set by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) through its Academic Progress Rate (APR) measurement as the NCAA released its annual APR report Wednesday.
The multi-year APR for each NCAA Division I team is based on the past four years’ totals for eligibility and retention of each scholarship student-athlete every year. The 2015 report released Wednesday is based on annual rates from 2011-12 through 2014-15. APR is calculated for every Division I sports team each academic year.
With seven Huskie teams posting a perfect Academic Progress Rate of 1000 for the 2014-15 academic year – meaning every scholarship student-athlete in those programs remained eligible and returned or graduated each semester – NIU saw 13 of its 16 programs (indoor and outdoor track were combined in the 2014-15 report) achieve a multi-year APR of 970 or above, while 10 teams bettered the 980 mark.
Three Huskie teams – men’s tennis, women’s tennis and women’s gymnastics – recorded a perfect multiyear APR of 1,000 and were honored last week by the NCAA with a Public Recognition Award. All three of those teams led the MAC in their respective sports, and seven NIU programs ranked in the top half of the MAC, including football, whose 970 APR for 2014-15 matched the team’s previous year’s APR and tied for second among league schools.
In addition to the perfect scores, the NIU volleyball, women’s soccer and women’s cross country teams each posted a multiyear APR of 995 for 2014-15. They were followed by men’s golf (987), women’s golf (986), and women’s basketball (982) and women’s track and field (982) as Huskie sport programs with APR scores above 980.
Women’s tennis, wrestling, men’s basketball and softball saw the largest increases from a year ago with women’s tennis up 23 points to achieve its perfect score and wrestling’s increase at 14 points for 2015 and 26 points over the past two years. Men’s basketball saw a nine-point improvement with a single-year Academic Progress Rate of 981 for 2014-15 contributing to its total, while softball’s APR rose eight points. Overall, 10 NIU programs improved or equaled their APR marks from a year ago.
“The APR report provides another tool to benchmark our programs academically and is another indication that at NIU, we are getting it done the right way,” said NIU Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics Sean T. Frazier. “Outstanding work by our coaches, student-athletes and academic support staff as we continue to move our programs forward in the classroom and in competition.”
With just over three weeks until 2016 Spring Commencement ceremonies, NIU is poised to add another class of student-athlete graduates while seven spring sports teams chase MAC Championships between now and the end of May.
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