Gophers lose 3 schollies due to APR score

[GoAUpher]

Gophers lose 3 schollies this season due to APR score

From the ESPN B10 Blog: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-3-342/Gophers-lose-three-scholies-after-low-APR-score.html

And before someone goes off and blames this on all Brewster, this is a multiyear score (4 year avg) not a year by year report card. Key quote:

"[The football program] had 29 Academic All-Big Ten performers last fall, which was the most in the conference last year, graduated all 12 of its seniors, and recorded a 957 APR for the fall semester, which is one of the program's best single-semester scores since the NCAA instituted the APR system."​

 

[Son of a Badger]

Well this isn't good...I thought I read somewhere that transfers hurt your APR, is that true? If so, there were quite a few when Brewster took over.

 

[GoAUpher]

It also should be noted that the report only includes data through the '07-'08 season...so this is a APR based on 3 Mason teams and 1 Brewster team. Not trying to pick a fight, just want to make sure the facts are out there before everyone gets heated.

 

[GoAUpher]

Well this isn't good...I thought I read somewhere that transfers hurt your APR, is that true? If so, there were quite a few when Brewster took over.

Here's what I found on the NCAA site:
Academic Progress Rate (APR). The APR is the fulcrum upon which the entire academic-reform structure rests. Developed as a more real-time assessment of teams' academic performance than the six-year graduation-rate calculation provides, the APR awards two points each term to student-athletes who meet academic-eligibility standards and who remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible.
925. This is the cut score the Division I Board of Directors approved for immediate (or contemporaneous) penalties. APR scores have already become meaningful numbers to the NCAA membership and general public. Based on current data, an APR score of 925 (out of 1,000) translates to an approximate 60 percent Graduation Success Rate.
900. This is the cut score for historical penalties. This benchmark of 900 APR translates to an approximate 45 percent Graduation Success Rate.
0-for-2. Under the APR calculation, an "0-for-2" student-athlete is one who is neither academically eligible nor remains with the institution. An 0-for-2 player might be one who transfers, leaves the institution for personal reasons or leaves to turn pro and would not have been academically eligible had he or she returned. Obviously, these are the types of situations the academic-reform structure is most meant to address, since they are the most damaging to a team's APR. While teams cannot always control the reasons student-athletes leave, the immediate (or contemporaneous) penalty holds them accountable for at least making sure student-athletes are academically eligible during their college tenures.

So basically it looks like you get 1 point for being eligible and 1 point for staying with the school. A player who transfers while in good standing is a 1 for 2 and hurts the score. Not sure why that would be (what if the kid just wanted to be closer to home) but that's how I read it.

 

[Son of a Badger]

Yeah, I thought it was negative if a player transferred I agree that it seems kind of dumb that if a player is a good student but is not getting the playing time hurts the team.

So, for example, we'll just use Kevin Payton he'd be 0-2 because he has poor grades and is transferring because all he does is sit on the bench. It's reasons like this people hate the NCAA.

 

[denguegopher]

From the ESPN B10 Blog: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-3-342/Gophers-lose-three-scholies-after-low-APR-score.html

And before someone goes off and blames this on all Brewster, this is a multiyear score (4 year avg) not a year by year report card. Key quote:

"[The football program] had 29 Academic All-Big Ten performers last fall, which was the most in the conference last year, graduated all 12 of its seniors, and recorded a 957 APR for the fall semester, which is one of the program's best single-semester scores since the NCAA instituted the APR system."​

Well, it looks like they knew it was coming, and Maturi's comments suggest that things are looking up. Does anyone know if other Big 10 teams lost scholarships?

 

[mggoph]

It should also be noted this was already applied and will not affect future recruiting classes.

According to Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi, the football program factored the three-scholarship reduction into its 2009 recruiting class, signing three fewer student-athletes than it was allowed. As a result, the contemporaneous penalty will not affect future recruiting classes.

 

[GoAUpher]

Well, it looks like they knew it was coming, and Maturi's comments suggest that things are looking up. Does anyone know if other Big 10 teams lost scholarships?

Doubtful, as I think Ritterburg would have done it as a grouped post (e.g. "Minnesota and Penn State lose scholarships from recent APR report"). I checked and the most recent data is not yet up on the NCAA website.

 

[GoAUpher]

Well, it looks like they knew it was coming, and Maturi's comments suggest that things are looking up. Does anyone know if other Big 10 teams lost scholarships?

Yea, we were only a 927 in the previous APR report and I'm sure the U didn't need to hear back from the NCAA to know they had dropped below the red line.

Also, if you view either the link above or the attached .pdf you'll see that Men's BBall was already below the line last year (score of 910) and will probably face sanctions from the '07-'08 report unless some drastic improvement happened.

 

[mggoph]

My info was from the Pioneer Press, which isn't exactly the same (seems like more info) as Rittenberg's ESPN piece.

http://www.twincities.com/gophersfootball/ci_12273744

The University of Minnesota's football program slipped from 927 to 887 in the Academic Progress Report and will lose three scholarships, from 85 to 82, it announced in a statement today.

The wrestling program fell from 944 to 919 but the reduction will not affect scholarships.

According to Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi, the football program factored the three-scholarship reduction into its 2009 recruiting class, signing three fewer student-athletes than it was allowed. As a result, the contemporaneous penalty will not affect future recruiting classes.

"We were certainly disappointed to learn that the multiyear APR score for football was going to fall below the 925 cutline and that the program was going to be subjected to a penalty," Maturi said in a statement. "It's certainly not a situation we want any of our teams to face and we have invested a lot of time, effort and money in our academic programs to ensure that our student-athletes have the very best opportunity to succeed.

"The good news is that the football program is back on solid academic footing. It had 29 Academic All-Big Ten performers last fall, which was the most in the conference last year, graduated all 12 of its seniors, and recorded a 957 APR for the fall semester, which is one of the program's best single-semester scores since the NCAA instituted the APR system."

The APR is determined by using the eligibility and retention for each student-athlete on scholarship during a particular academic year. Student-athletes are awarded one point for each semester they are enrolled and one point for each semester they are eligible for intercollegiate competition. A student-athlete can earn a maximum of four points during an academic year. Additional points are not given for student-athletes that graduate at the end of the semester, but rather the student-athlete is awarded one point for retention and one point for eligibility.

The APR figures that will be released next Wednesday by the NCAA include data from the 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years. It is calculated by taking the number of possible points for a particular sport for the four years and dividing that number by the total number of points earned from student-athlete retention and eligibility over the same period of time. The percentage is then multiplied by 1,000 to obtain the actual multiyear rate used in the report.

The purpose of the APR, according to the NCAA, is to provide a "real-time snapshot" of each team's academic performance. The NCAA requires teams to maintain a minimum APR of 925 to avoid contemporaneous penalties that include the possibility of losing grant-in-aid for the period of one year if a student-athlete leaves school while academically ineligible. Institutions will not be allowed to award the grant-in-aid from the ineligible student-athlete to a different student-athlete. The contemporaneous penalties will only apply when a team below the 925 does not retain an academically ineligible student-athlete.

According to the report, 23 of Minnesota's 25 athletic teams scored higher than 950 in 2007-2008, including 22 that either met or exceeded a score of 965 to rank among what the NCAA considers to be "high performing" teams, giving the department its highest average team APR score ever - 979.6.

 

[grunkiejr]

This explains a lot. When we signed the last class I felt like we should have 2-3 more scholarships available than we were signing and it seemed like they were trying to push committed players to gray shirt.

We should be moving in the right direction with the improved grades last spring and this fall but there was a lot of turnover on the team with the transition from Mason to Brewster and with the late signees from the 2007 class.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

perhaps title of thread can be fixed to reflect this was already factored into 2009?

i do appreciate the info, just wondering. thanks

 

[Governor Sibley]

Unacceptable.

 

[Nervous Gopher]

re:

It also should be noted that the report only includes data through the '07-'08 season...so this is a APR based on 3 Mason teams and 1 Brewster team. Not trying to pick a fight, just want to make sure the facts are out there before everyone gets heated.

I understand yesterday is a long time ago for you, Tom, but remember that laundry list thing?? Nevertheless, circle those wagons ever so tightly...its ONE thing you do well.

 

[GoAUpher]

i do appreciate the info, just wondering. thanks

Noted that the loss was for this season...ran out of space trying to fit in the factor part.

 

[Oscar Munson]

I understand yesterday is a long time ago for you, Tom, but remember that laundry list thing?? Nevertheless, circle those wagons ever so tightly...its ONE thing you do well.

why don't you give us your name there Nervous, since you like using other people's names so much. What are you afraid of tough guy?

 

[MRJ]

I understand yesterday is a long time ago for you, Tom, but remember that laundry list thing?? Nevertheless, circle those wagons ever so tightly...its ONE thing you do well.

You're right. Everything is a total mess all the way around. Brewster is leading us to utter and total ruin.

And what laundry list is that? The one that nobody has proven? Maybe it's a good thing that you sell your tickets.

 

[GoAUpher]

why don't you give us your name there Nervous, since you like using other people's names so much. What are you afraid of tough guy?

Its especially great since my name isn't Tom. This is good. It looks like my subterfuge has thrown Nervous and his crew off my trail. Now I just have to make myself a crafty disguise and that should keep me out of a body cast. Here's what I'm thinking of....

And Nervous, you'll have to jog my memory on this laundry list thing. You terroristic threats have got me so scared that I'm not sure I know what you're talking about.

 

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

You're right. Everything is a total mess all the way around. Brewster is leading us to utter and total ruin.

And what laundry list is that? The one that nobody has proven? Maybe it's a good thing that you sell your tickets.

seriously does anyone actually believe that this POS who calls himself "nervous gopher": 1.) even has season tickets to sell 2.) is a gopher fan

nothing but a giant turd and a troll.

 

[4starrecruit]

There had better be no more people transferring out of this program for any reason.

The three things that matter are graduating ever increasing numbers of football players, running a completely honest and clean and above board football program and winning a significant number of Big Ten football games. Not much else really matters now that the new stadium is built and the administration is really up against the wall needing to make the whole new stadium deal pay for Title IX and non-revenue sports. "...and it's up against the wall you joel maturi..." You have been making a real mess out of the football coaching situation at the U of M. You let Mason's contract run down to nothing, then extended him and the next year bought him out at the cost of millions and millions of dollars that wouldn't have needed to be spent if you would have just let his contract expire at the end of the 2005 season. Major screw up on your part maturi. And then you hired a no-name, no-experienced guy to run the football program. He brought in big $$$$$ coordinators and they didn't work out. Players transferred...he ran some off with the switching of the offense to the dunbar disaster...and as a result of the body of the macturi work on the football program, this brewster lost 3 scholarships as a result. Way to go macturi!

Ditch this maturi now. Never let him hire again.

 

[GoAUpher]

A little more info on this from the STrib coverage: http://www.startribune.com/sports/g...cyaiUjc8LDyiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Key quote:

Maturi agreed that the football APR numbers appear to be the result of three factors:

• Five players -- Dominic Jones, Alex Daniels, Keith Massey, E.J. Jones and Robert McField -- were dismissed from the program and left school after an alleged 2007 campus sexual assault that resulted in the conviction of Dominic Jones.

• Several of former coach Glen Mason's players, including Tommy Becker, Sean McWhirter and Mike Chambers, transferred out of the program during Tim Brewster's first year.

• Brewster's first recruiting class in 2007, coming only two months after he became coach, has retained only eight of 19 signees.

"There's no doubt that some of the kids [from the 2007 class] were academically challenged," Maturi said. "But we were trying to get a recruiting class at the end [after Brewster's hiring in January] and we took some gambles, and lost on them."​

Interesting to hear from Maturi what some of the probable causes are. Everything here makes sense. Mase already had us near the edge, Brew took some chances to fill out immediate post hire recruiting class, DJ and the gang f-ed up, and we went through the normal new coach transfers.

I wish they hadn't overreached in the transitional recruiting class (cause I think that probably hurt a great deal), but it looks like things have been turned around, at least by the fall semester #'s. Hopefully things continue to improve...the academic performance of the men's teams has been kinda sad for a while now. Nice job by Tubby's guys to get back on the right side of that red line though!

 

[ulfr]

The frantic rattling sound you've heard was Reusse reloading his +1 Brewster-Bashing-Boomstick with all this wonderfully fresh ammo, let the shelling begin...

 

[GoAUpher]

The frantic rattling sound you've heard was Reusse reloading his +1 Brewster-Bashing-Boomstick with all this wonderfully fresh ammo, let the shelling begin...

Which is hilarious given that 2 of the 3 main reasons listed (and the one unspoken reason, Mason's already poor academic score) can't be blamed on Brewster. The recruiting class is all on him even if it wasn't his true "first class", but the rest was out of his control.

 

[KD6-3.7]

i wish there was someone on this forum who could tell us all the correct spelling of the word "scholly"

 

[proudgopher]

Since this calculation is a retroactive, rolling year look at prior data, this is attributable almost exclusively to Mason's recruits which included the five booted from the team for misconduct right after Brew took over the program.

 

[Schnoodler]

I like the 'ie' on the end as in Schollie. Although the 'y' is one less letter and anytime you can have a letter with a tail the word is instantly more interesting, so I could be convinced to go with the Scholly.

To the OP, since this is a floating calculation, it's hard to imagine an improved APR for at least one more year. Maybe even two more years.

 

[GoAUpher]

I like the 'ie' on the end as in Schollie. Although the 'y' is one less letter and anytime you can have a letter with a tail the word is instantly more interesting, so I could be convinced to go with the Scholly.

To the OP, since this is a floating calculation, it's hard to imagine an improved APR for at least one more year. Maybe even two more years.

I'm not saying it will be done...887 is...well, not good seems generous. But if they went with back to back 957's for the Fall/Spring semesters I think they'll be alright.

 

[RodentRampage]

Here's one reform they could do: If a player transfers and graduates from that new school, you get credited with graduating that player. It's unfair to penalize schools because players transfer to get more playing time. If they managed to graduate from that new school, they must have been doing something right academically at the original school.

 

[GoAUpher]

Here's one reform they could do: If a player transfers and graduates from that new school, you get credited with graduating that player. It's unfair to penalize schools because players transfer to get more playing time. If they managed to graduate from that new school, they must have been doing something right academically at the original school.

I don't think they should penalize for transfers at all unless they aren't eligible (0 for 2's). Like you said, how can you penalize a school when a player wants playing time, doesn't like a new coach, etc? Same thing for players who jump to the pros...how is that the school's fault?

 

[grunkiejr]

I don't think they should penalize for transfers at all unless they aren't eligible (0 for 2's). Like you said, how can you penalize a school when a player wants playing time, doesn't like a new coach, etc? Same thing for players who jump to the pros...how is that the school's fault?

Agreed.

Before I say anything else I want to correct something in the article. It said that Brewster had 2 months to recruit players but the reality is that he had ~2 weeks before signing day. Mason was fired on Jan. 1 after the Insight Bowl. Brewster was hired about 2-3 weeks later and LOI day is the first Wednesday in February. Therefore, I have a hard time calling it Brewster's first class as opposed to Mason's last class since his staff put it together and Brewster's #1 job was retaining players already committed and filling in the rest of the class.

The retention of the 2007 class is so poor because we had to fill in the class after LOI day was completed. The only players that are still available at that time are either academic risks or players that would be walk-ons. For instance, Ralph Spry signed an LOI in April of 2007--more than 2 months after signing day. If not for a late offer from Minnesota he would have been a walk-on at some place like Troy St. We were transitioning to the spread so Brewster needed to add WR depth just to field enough receivers to hold a practice and some of those players inevitably saw the field. In 2008 we added 5 WR's and by the end of the year all of them had passed the WR's in the 2007 recruiting class on the depth chart. The only way to get around this problem would have been to recruit players in 2008 that wouldn't pass glorified walk ons on the depth chart. I'll take a loss of 3 scholarships to have better players on the team and have the 2007 class transferring away.

The reality is that our academics have improved versus prior years but going through a transition caused players that were better suited for a Mason team or didn't have the talent to compete with younger Brewster recruits to leave early. At this point the only casualty from Brewster's 2008 class that was deemed "academically at-risk" by the media is Tramaine Brock which tells me that the academic support is working.