Cal football posts multi-year APR score of 938, men's basketball 939

As was leaked a few months ago, Cal football will steer clear of APR danger this season. 

NCAA Academic Progress Rate scores were released yesterday, and Cal football got that much-needed bump from 935 to 938 after posting a single-year APR score of 969. Since the last three years of APR scores have been lousy and Cal was replacing the still decent 2008-09 numbers, you won’t see a huge bump, but it’s still a step in the right direction. If Sonny Dykes can post a similar score this season, Cal should finally find themselves out of APR danger.

Cal men’s basketball took a bit of a hit. The multi-year APR score fell from 955 to 939 after the Bears posted a single-year score in 2012-13 of 938 (replacing the perfect 1000 figure from 2008-2009). The good news is that next year, Cal will be able to take the hideous 887 2009-10 score off the books, so there should be an improvement barring disastrous 2013-14 numbers. Cal men’s basketball posted single season marks of 977 in 2010-11 and 961 in 2011-12, so hopefully the 938 figure is anomalous and will be reversed during the Cuonzo Martin era.

In good news for the program, eight teams put up perfect one year APR results: Men’s tennis and water polo, women’s basketball (our Final Four team!), golf, gymnastics, tennis, volleyball and water polo. Of important note is Cal women’s basketball making amazing leaps under Lindsay Gottlieb, improving each year gradually to reach that perfect mark in 2012-13.


You can view the APR report for UC Berkeley by clicking here. Also, the entire NCAA APR searchable database is available for public consumption by clicking here.

Here is the press release from Cal Athletics. Also, cool infographic on our team's academic progress can be downloaded here.

BERKELEY – The NCAA released its latest one-year and four-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores Wednesday, and the results show that student-athletes at the University of California, Berkeley, are achieving in their academic pursuits.

Eight (8) teams (men’s tennis, men’s water polo, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s tennis, women’s volleyball and women’s water polo) achieved a perfect score of 1,000 in the one-year APR results reflecting the 2012-13 academic year. Men’s tennis has scored 1,000 each of the past six years, while women’s tennis has reached the standard in five of the last six years.

APR infographicEach year, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every officially sanctioned NCAA Division I team through the annual scorecard of academic achievement, known as APR. The rate accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance. Created in 2003 by the NCAA to provide an annual “real-time” sport-by-sport snapshot of the academic performance of student-athletes, APR reporting also includes a four-year average in addition to the most recent one-year average. The four-year APR results reported Wednesday include the 2009-10 through 2012-13 academic years, while the one-year APR result reported accounts for 2012-13.

Four Golden Bear programs received Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA for their outstanding academic achievement and high multiyear averages, a total that ranked second among Pac-12 schools. Those teams – men’s and women’s tennis, women’s gymnastics and women’s volleyball – all earned the highest possible score, with four-year APR scores of 1,000. In addition, eight other teams had multiyear APR scores above 975 – women’s field hockey, men’s golf, women’s lacrosse, women’s rowing, women’s soccer, women’s swimming & diving, along with men’s and women’s water polo. Women’s basketball reported a four-year APR score of 954, and the program has seen significant improvement over the past four years (917 in 2009-10, 938 in 2010-11, 960 in 2011-12 and 1,000 in 2012-13).

In addition to the aforementioned teams’ stellar academic performance, the Golden Bears’ football program exhibited particularly marked improvement with a one-year APR (2012-13) score of 969, a 46-point improvement from its previous one-year (2011-12) score of 923. The football team also saw an increase with its four-year APR score from a 935 to a 938, and a closer look at the year-by-year numbers shows the distinct progress the Bears made in 2012-13. Following single-year APR scores of 934, 926 and 923 for the three previous years, Cal’s score for the 2012-13 academic year was 969.

The men’s basketball multi-year rate fell from 955 to 939. The Golden Bears scored 938 for 2012-13, which was a significant factor in the decreased score, as it replaced a score of 1,000 from 2008-09 in their four-year average.

“Many of our programs are performing very well in their APR scores, and they should be congratulated for the success they are showing in the classroom,” said Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour. “We are constantly evaluating the student-athlete experience on campus and regularly taking steps to help improve academic support for our student-athletes to ensure we are creating the necessary environment for their success. We are the world’s leading public university and as such, we aspire to build today’s leaders in the classroom, in the community and on the field of competition.

“Our goal is consistent improvement in our academic performance,” Barbour continued. “This is a process and it will take time for some of our lower-performing programs to turn it around. We must focus on the challenge at hand and, through a collaborative approach with our campus partners, are working to get better across the board.”

Specifically, Barbour cited the Chancellor’s Task Force on Academics and Athletics that is comprised of a broad spectrum of members, including representatives from the Athletic Study Center, student body, faculty, coaching staff and alumni. They are charged with delivering a series of actionable recommendations to assist the campus in maximizing the academic performance of student-athletes and the overall quality of their campus experience by the end of June 2014.

“While many of our teams sport outstanding APR scores, we still have work to do and won't be satisfied until all of our programs are achieving at a high level,” Barbour said. “Our objective is to make sure we are providing our student-athletes with the resources they need to create the right conditions for them to attain their goals.”

Twenty-five of Cal’s 27 measured programs posted scores of at least 945 in the multi-year rates. Teams must produce a multi-year score of 930 or higher or risk losing eligibility to compete in NCAA postseason championships. Men’s crew and rugby are not NCAA sports, and women’s sand volleyball began competition for the first time this spring. Thus, they do not figure into the statistics.