University Letter

UND's faculty and staff newsletter

Athletic teams exceed Academic Progress Rate minimum scores

Three University of North Dakota teams earned perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores and all 15 of North Dakota’s teams exceeded the national threshold, according to data released on Wednesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Each of UND’s 15 teams recorded multi-year APR scores of at least 940 or better in 2016-17, putting each above the four-year minimum score of 930 required to be eligible for the 2018-19 postseason. Additionally, teams must earn at least a 930 four-year APR to avoid other penalties.

Three of UND’s teams earned perfect scores of 1,000: men’s cross country, men’s golf and women’s cross country. Those three teams, plus men’s track and field, received NCAA Public Recognition Awards earlier this month for scoring in the top 10 percent nationally. It was the fourth consecutive year in which North Dakota led the Big Sky Conference in NCAA Public Recognition Awards.

“Congratulations to all of our teams. This is a testament to our coaches’ emphasis on academics and retention, and on our student-athletes performing well in the classroom,” said UND Assistant Athletics Director for Academic Services Amanda Hajdu. “Our coaches are very mindful of APR and that is awesome. Our student-athletes are excellent students and we look forward to consistently-positive and improving APR scores as a department.”

The APR, created to be a more real-time measurement of academic success than graduation rates, is a team-based metric through which scholarship student-athletes each term earn 1 point for remaining eligible and 1 point for staying in school or graduating. At schools that don’t offer scholarships, recruited student-athletes are tracked. Every Division I sports team calculates its Academic Progress Rate each academic year. The NCAA reports both single-year rates and four-year rates, on which penalties for poor academic performance are based. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member-provided data from April 6.

APRs for each team, lists of teams receiving public recognition, and those receiving sanctions are available online HERE.

UND’s 2016-17 APR Scores
Football: 941
Men’s Basketball: 955
Men’s Cross Country: 1000
Men’s Golf: 1000
Men’s Hockey: 986
Men’s Tennis: 940
Men’s Track & Field: 996
Softball: 980
Women’s Basketball: 996
Women’s Cross Country: 1000*
Women’s Golf: 993
Women’s Soccer: 985
Women’s Tennis: 976
Women’s Track & Field: 988
Women’s Volleyball: 983