The NCAA’s Academic Performance Program revamped the Academic Progress Rate (APR) data in 2011, wary of the struggles historic black colleges and universities were facing in their compilation and submission of data each year.
New rules that went into place with the 2012-13 academic year don’t seem to have helped the situation, however.
Of the 36 programs facing APR penalties from the NCAA, 28 are located at HBCU programs within the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
Of the 17 colleges and universities whose athletic programs face penalties, 11 are MEAC and SWAC programs.
“The Southwestern Athletic Conference remains committed to assisting our member institutions in meeting academic progress and the metric for a successful Academic Progress Rate,” said SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp. “The SWAC will continue to work closely with the NCAA, president Mark Emmert, Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) chair Walter Harrison and the Limited Resource Institutions advisory group. We are also proud of our student-athletes who have achieved academic success by graduating and performing at the highest level during competition.”
Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M and Jackson State were the only SWAC members to escape penalties announced last week.
