Topic: H-D: Herd athletes make grade

[biggreenarms]

HUNTINGTON -- All 16 Marshall University sports teams made the grade in the NCAA's annual Academic Progress Rate report.

APR tracks progress of scholarship student-athletes and teams lose points when players become academically ineligible or leave the school in poor academic standing. To avoid becoming ineligible for postseason play in 2014-15, each sport must meet the required four-year average score of 930.

The NCAA tracks APR in single-year and multi-year rates. Multi-year rates released Wednesday covered a four-year span from 2009-10 through 2012-13.

Marshall's multi-year average of 975 is slightly below the NCAA average of 976.

The Thundering Herd had nine sports -- men's cross country, women's cross country, women's golf, women's soccer, softball, women's swimming, women's tennis, women's indoor track and women's outdoor track -- with perfect scores of 1,000 for 2012-13.

Marshall football scored 975 for 2012-13 and posted a multi-year rate of 948. Men's basketball came in at 940 for 2012-13 and right at the multi-year cutline of 930.

Thirty-six teams will be banned from the 2014-15 postseason because of poor academic results, including 17 teams in football or men's basketball.

And of the 17 football and men's basketball teams facing the harshest sanctions, eight are historically black colleges -- including the only two schools to face postseason bans in both sports, Alabama State and Florida A&M.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Idaho, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, St. Francis (Pa), Savannah State and UNLV will also be prohibited from postseason action in football.

Appalachian State, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, Lamar, San Jose State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee, along with Alabama State and Florida A&M will be kept out of the NCAA's men's basketball tournament.

The report also shows transfers in Division I men's basketball increased significantly over each of the last four years. The percentage of players going from one four-year school to another jumped from 10.0 in 2009-10 to 10.6 percent in 2010-11 to 11.9 percent in 2011-12 and now sits at 13. 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the percentage of college football players changing four-year schools was just 3.7 percent in 2012-13.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/marshall/x1315749507/Herd-athletes-keep-up-in-classroom