All 14 Golden Eagle athletic programs exceed NCAA APR benchmark for 11th-straight year

By TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – All 14 of Tennessee Tech's athletic teams have once again comfortably exceeded the national APR standards set by the NCAA for the 11th consecutive year. The APR standard is a benchmark to determine how an athletics program is meeting the mission of educating its student-athletes.

In simplest terms, Tech's more than 300 student-athletes are staying in school, remaining eligible, and making progress toward their degrees.

The numbers were announced Tuesday in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR), an annual report from the NCAA.

Not only did Tech's teams all achieve the benchmark, but seven teams also met or finished higher than the national average. Tech also fared extremely well in comparison with its peers throughout the Ohio Valley Conference and among four-year institutions in the state of Tennessee.

Six Golden Eagle teams ranked in the top five in the Ohio Valley Conference, paced by the men's golf and women's golf teams, which ranked first in the league with perfect marks of 1000 for the second-straight year. The baseball team's mark of 993 represented the best showing in the league while the women's basketball team's mark of 991 tied for the best in the OVC.

Among four-year, public institutions within the state, seven Golden Eagle teams ranked among the top five scores. Both golf programs and the baseball team tied for the top spot in the state of Tennessee, both overall and in the public system. Nine of Tech's 14 athletic programs increased its APR mark from last year's numbers, while both golf teams matched their perfect output. 

Every Division I institution calculates the APR of each team each academic year, based on the eligibility, graduation and retention of each scholarship student-athlete. Teams scoring below certain thresholds can face consequences, such as practice restrictions and restrictions on postseason competition. The current multi-year rates are based on the past four years' performances. The most recent APRs are based on the scores from the 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.
 
"Success in our APR numbers speaks to the diligence of our student-athletes, our coaches and our academic support system and personnel, as well as the outstanding work by the faculty of Tennessee Tech," said Mark Wilson, Director of Athletics. "Our student-athletes are coming in better prepared when they enter Tennessee Tech, and they are staying on track to earn their degrees. We take a great deal of pride in the academic success of all our teams, and these APR rates verify, once again, that we are successfully fulfilling our mission toward our student-athletes.

"These kinds of APR numbers point out that our student-athletes and our staff continue to take seriously our goal of stressing the importance of academic success," Wilson said.

Tennessee Tech's 2019 Multi-Year APR Rates

Note: The NCAA expected standard APR score for a team's multi-year rate is 930