FULLERTON, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball program was issued a Level One penalty as released through the National Collegiate Athletics Association's (NCAA) annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) report on Wednesday.
Level One penalties focus on practice restrictions, allowing teams to use that time to focus on academics. This year, the Titans are one of 42 teams to face this level of penalty.
The Cal State Fullerton men's basketball program's two-year score met the minimum of 940, but the team's four-year multi-rate score of 915 for the four academic years from 2009-10 through 2012-13 fell below the required minimum of 930 due to Fullerton's score of 784 during 2009-10.
"Academics are a very important part of our program's structure," men's basketball head coach Dedrique Taylor said as he enters his second year at Cal State Fullerton. "Our student-athletes understand that nothing but their best effort in the classroom is acceptable, and we are continuing to make significant improvements off the court, as demonstrated by our four seniors obtaining their degrees this weekend."
Seniors Chris Collins, Marquis Horne, James Johnson and Michael Williams will graduate this week.
Titan teams posting increases in their multi-year rate included baseball (954 to 963), men's soccer (957 to 959), women's basketball (949 to 966), women's golf (962 to 971), women's soccer (977 to 982), women's tennis (973 to 981), women's indoor track and field (966 to 970), women's outdoor track and field (969 to 973) and volleyball (971 to 975).
The APR is a real-time measure of eligibility and retention. The highest possible score is 1,000 and a 930 score projects to approximately a 50 percent Graduation Success Rate according to NCAA data experts.
Every Division I sports team calculates its APR each academic year. Scholarship student-athletes each semester receive one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Teams scoring below certain thresholds can face consequences, including practice restrictions and playing season reductions. Rates are an average of the past four years' performance. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable data at the time of analysis.
In order to compete in the 2014-15 postseason, teams must achieve either a 930 multi-year APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years. This approach represents the next step in a phased-in move to a standard 930 benchmark, which will be in place for most schools with next year's announcement of 2013-14 data collected in the fall of 2014.
The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
The Association holds Division I institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through the Academic Progress Rate, a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete, each term.