The four-year Academic Progress Rate national average for Division I teams remained steady at 984 this year, as the division marked the 20th anniversary of APR data collection. For the current set of data, The Big West saw 35 teams representing 10 member-institutions achieve a perfect Academic Progress Rate of 1,000.
“The entirety of The Big West continues to emphasize the student component of student-athlete. This is backed up by today’s data. The Big West is comprised of elite academic institutions with each placing a premium on academic rigor and success,” Commissioner Dan Butterly said. “These results show that our student-athletes are up to the challenge in competing for top marks in the classroom and on the fields of play in NCAA Division I competition. We applaud these student-athletes and the administrators at each institution for their unwavering commitment to academic excellence.”
Ten member-institutions claimed at least two perfect scores within the grouping of 35 four-digit marks. UC Irvine leads the way with six teams reaching perfection, with UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly at five, and CSUN sitting with four teams at 1,000. Long Beach State, UC Davis and UC Riverside each have a trio on the listings with Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton and UC San Diego each with a pair on the listings to round out The Big West’s top teams. Four Big West champion teams in the 2023-24 academic year also saw a perfect APR for the 2022-23 cohort.
By sport, 15 of The Big West’s 19 sponsored sports are represented. Men’s golf and women’s tennis again pace the conference with five programs with a 1,000 APR to lead the way with Big West women’s golf appearing four times with the top score.
All told, 106 of the 177 Big West teams, or 59.9 percent, meet or exceed the national four-year average. Seventy-eight programs across the conference sport an APR of 990 or higher.
During the past 20 years of APR data, overall student-athlete academic success has risen substantially. Additionally, over the last two decades, 21,365 former student-athletes have returned to the classroom after exhausting their athletics eligibility to complete degrees and earn APR points for their former team. These student-athletes are typically not counted as graduates in the federal graduation rate or Graduation Success Rate calculations.
Dave Schnase, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs, said, “Student-athletes have achieved incredible success in the classroom over the last 20 years, mostly due to the hard work and commitment to academic achievement by student-athletes on campuses across the country.
“In addition, the unprecedented success is in part due to the work of the Committee on Academics and its predecessor, the Committee on Academic Performance. The policy changes they made, including initial-eligibility standards and progress-toward-degree requirements, along with on-campus support for student-athletes, contributed to the high rates we are seeing now.”
In 1989, the Division I Degree Completion Award Program was established to provide student-athletes with financial assistance to complete their education during their five-year eligibility period. The award consists of tuition, fees, and an allowance for textbooks and other expenses.
In the past 35 years, the program has awarded over $30 million to more than 2,900 student-athletes.
Additionally, in 2018 the Division I Board of Directors adopted legislation to require schools to provide degree completion funding specifically to former men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes. This summer, the legislation will expand to require Division I schools to fund degree completion opportunities for former student-athletes across all sports who meet certain criteria.
These actions and initiatives are just a few of the many steps the NCAA has taken to prioritize academic success and increase access to higher education opportunities, promote degree completion and earn APR points.
Each academic year, every Division I sports team’s APR is calculated using a simple and consistent formula. Scholarship student-athletes can earn 1 point for staying on course for a degree in their chosen major and 1 point for being retained (or graduating) at the end of each academic term. For schools that do not offer athletics scholarships, recruited student-athletes are tracked.
This is the third consecutive year of publicly reported APRs after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Division I board approved the release of APR scores but voted to continue the suspension of program penalties. After further review, the Committee on Academics is not enforcing the loss of access to postseason competition for teams that have scored lower than 930. Instead, a conditional waiver is being offered this year due to lingering impacts of COVID-19.