April 24, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame again ranks among the national leaders as the NCAA this week honored 712 Division I sports teams with public recognition awards for their latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate scores.
These teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards are part of the broad Division I academic reform effort.
The teams recognized this year represent 11.4 percent of the 6,272 Division I teams. The list includes 401 women’s teams and 311 men’s or mixed squads. A total of 192 Division I institutions had a least one team on the top of the APR list. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000 over the data collection “Congratulations to these teams and their student-athletes for success in the classroom,” NCAA President Myles Brand said. “They are setting a great example for their peers and future student-athletes, as well.”
The effort is part of a public-recognition program the Division I Board of Directors approved in January 2006. Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized.
For the second consecutive year, Notre Dame had 11 of its programs honored for the multi-year achievement -men’s cross country, men’s fencing, men’s golf, men’s swimming, men’s indoor track and field, men’s outdoor track and field, women’s fencing, women’s soccer, women’s softball, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball.
Among Division I football-playing institutions, the only schools that had more programs honored than the 11 by Notre Dame were the U.S. Naval Academy (12) and Duke (12). Boston College and Stanford each had 10 programs, while Northwestern and North Carolina had eight.
“Our student-athletes continue to demonstrate the ability to perform at a high level both in the classroom and on the playing field,” said Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White.
Among BCS conference schools the BIG EAST ranked first with 47 teams honored.
By sport, women’s tennis featured the most teams (46), followed by women’s volleyball (41) and women’s golf (39). The men’s sports with the highest number of teams were basketball and cross country (both with 33) and golf (32). This is the first year that basketball led men’s sports.
Last year, a total of 839 teams were recognized. There are fewer awards this year than last year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores. In some sports, teams had to maintain a perfect score over the four-year period in order to be recognized.
Multi-year APR scores for all 6,272 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historical penalties for low-performing teams.