Success is academic
July 14th, 2007, 9:35 am · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
When the NCAA released its latest Academic Progress Report (APR) numbers earlier this year, Arizona State University was thrilled that its multi-year scores were high enough that the school did not lose scholarships. But what has ASU officials most excited is the Sun Devils’ projected APR performance in the future.
In two years, all of ASU’s 22 varsity sports are expected to be above the minimum mandated score of 925 in the APR, which measures athletes’ eligibility and retention. In 2006, a low APR score cost men’s basketball two scholarships (one retroactive).
“The numbers are going in a great trajectory,” athletic director Lisa Love said. “It’s something we take a great deal of pride in. Our goal is to keep it going. The (NCAA’s graduation success rate) has us at 70 percent of our athletes, and that’s well ahead of the general university rate. Our goals in this area are as aggressive as our on-field competitive goals.”
Jean Boyd, associate athletics director for student-athlete development, wants to be an AD someday. The former ASU safety, who played from 1991-93, is considered a rising star in the athletic department, and he and his staff of 10 full-time and 40 part-time academic advisors compiled this resume in 2006-07:
Sixty-three percent of ASU athletes earned a grade-point average of at least 3.0 during the fall and/or spring semester, and 48 percent have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 or better.
Seventeen of 22 sports (including every women’s team) have a cumulative team GPA of more than 3.0. Baseball, men’s basketball and wrestling were above 2.8, those sports’ highest squad GPA in five years.
ASU had 138 athletes named to a Pac-10 all-academic squad this season.
In the last six years, ASU is second in the Pac-10 (behind only Stanford) in number of academic All-Americans.
In 2006-07, the football team had the second-highest graduation rate in the Pac-10, behind Stanford.
