Three UNCG Teams Honored with APR Public Recognition Awards

INDIANAPOLIS – UNCG’s men’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track programs were among the 954 programs nationally to earn 2012 Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA for ranking in the top 10 percent of all Division I teams in their respective sports, the association announced Thursday.

The 954 teams publicly recognized this year for high achievement include 560 women’s teams and 394 men’s or mixed squads.

Each year, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I team through the annual scorecard of academic achievement, known as APR. The score measures eligibility and retention each semester or quarter and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years. Teams honored by the NCAA earned multiple APR scores in the top 10 percent for the past four years.

Top performing APRs this year ranged from 978 to a perfect 1,000, with the majority of teams earning a perfect APR. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on the number of perfect scores.

UNCG’s men’s cross country and track programs took the honor for the second straight year.

In seven years of the NCAA’s academic reform program, 2,946 different teams have received Public Recognition Awards, representing 46 percent of eligible teams during that time. Of that total, 209 teams have received Public Recognition Awards each of the seven years of the program.

Within the Southern Conference, nine of the 12 member schools had at least one team receive a Public Recognition Award. A total of 39 league teams received Public Recognition Awards, including 22 women’s teams and 17 men’s teams.

The NCAA’s full release of APR data for all of the Division I teams will take place June 20.