Numbers don’t lie: Bobb did the job while at UNCG

GREENSBORO, NC – UNC Greensboro Director of Athletics Nelson Bobb announced Wednesday that all 16 Spartan athletic teams had met satisfactory standards when the institution’s Academic Progress Report (APR) scores were announced by the NCAA earlier in the day.

The scores announced Wednesday reflected the multi-year APR scores for 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years. Of UNCG’s 16 athletic teams, 15 of them received APR scores of better than the 925 standard for the four-year period.

The men’s track and field program had a score of 915, but did not get penalized because the program has shown significant improvement over the past two years. For the 2007-08 academic year, men’s track and field had a perfect 1000 APR score.

Altogether, six sports had perfect 1000 APR scores for the 2007-08 academic year – men’s cross country, men’s track and field, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball. All 16 programs had a score of 925 or higher for the 2007-08 academic year.

Last year, UNCG faced scholarship reductions through
contemporaneous penalties in the sports of men’s baseball(914), men’s basketball (920) and men’s track and field (896).

Ahead of last year’s announcement and in accordance with NCAA bylaws, the department immediately implemented academic improvement plans for each of the sports scoring below 925.

This latest round of APR scores were also somewhat affected in a positive fashion by the Committee on Academic Performance’s adoption of the transfer rule, whereas a student that leaves a program with a 2.6 GPA or better does not have a negative impact on the APR score. Previously, a departing student would be a minimum of a 3-for-4 assuming he or she was in good academic standing, but did not return to the program.

On this year’s report, men’s baseball has a score of 937, while men’s
basketball has a score of 930. Last year, both of those program’s had good eligibility scores, but were hurt by retention rates. In fact, UNCG’s men’s basketball four-year score is now nearly in-line with the national average of 933.

“We said we would address our shortcomings and we have,” said Bobb. “Part of our issue in the past had been more one of retention, rather than eligibility. Therefore, we thought the transfer rule would be of great value to us. That being said, we implemented better procedures and made sure our folks worked hard to either exceed APR minimums or maintain the good APR status they had established already.”

Seven of UNCG’s 16 teams surpassed the national average for their
respective sport’s APR scores. Last month, the UNCG women’s basketball and women’s tennis programs were honored by the NCAA for having perfect APR scores for the multi-year period.

Those two squads were among 455 teams that had perfect scores for the four-year period. A total of 6,323 squads were scored in the Division I membership.

“Understand that our work has not stopped on this issue,” said Bobb. “I will continue to say that the APR is a very complex issue. There are a number of factors that go into it and it can be a very delicate, very fragile process. I am proud that we were able to navigate through some choppy seas and get back on course at this time.”