Golden Eagle Athletics outperform NCAA APR benchmark for 13th-consecutive year

By TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Each of Tennessee Tech's athletic teams have once again comfortably exceeded the national APR standards set by the NCAA for the 13th consecutive year. The APR standard is a benchmark to determine how an athletics program is meeting its mission of educating its student-athletes.

This is the second year of publicly reported APRs after a one-year COVID-19 hiatus. Last spring, the Division I Board of Directors approved the release of APR scores but voted to continue the suspension of program penalties.

The minimum APR academic standard for each team is 930. Typically, teams that scored below the benchmark would have to face penalties that encourage an emphasis and prioritization on academics. However, due to the current penalty suspension in place, teams falling below the minimum 930 score will not be subjected to penalties this year.

Normal Academic Performance Program operations with program penalties and loss of access to postseason competition will resume in spring 2024. This will also include the public recognition of high-performing teams.

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 nine 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.

Five Golden Eagle teams ranked in the top three in the Ohio Valley Conference, paced by first-place showings from the football, women's basketball, and women's golf teams. The Tech tennis squad turned in a first-place finish in the Horizon League, making it six TTU programs at the top of their respective leagues. Sporting perfect scores of 1000 were the tennis and women's golf programs. 

Football's mark of 971 led the league while the Tech women's basketball team's APR of 991 tied for the top score in the OVC. The men's cross country team's mark of 988 and the soccer team's 994 represented the league's third-best scores in each sport.

Among four-year, public institutions within the state, nine Golden Eagle teams ranked among the top five scores. The women's basketball, tennis, and women's golf teams all tied for the top spot in the state of Tennessee among public schools. Both tennis and women's golf also tied for the best among all state institutions.

Women's basketball boasted the second-best mark in the state when including private schools while football turned in the third-best APR in both categories. Among just public programs, men's cross country and soccer both finished third, men's basketball was fourth, and women's track & field's APR was fifth in the state.

"We take immense pride in the academic success of all of our teams, and these APR rates continue to verify that we are successfully fulfilling our mission for our student-athletes," Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said. "We have an incredible academic support system and a stellar University faculty that our student-athletes and coaches work closely with to achieve to the very best of their abilities, and our APR numbers speak to the diligence of everyone involved."

Ten of Tech's 14 athletic programs (not counting beach volleyball as it is in its inaugural year) turned in the same APR or improved upon their scores from last year's results.

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 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 academic years.

"These results point to the fact that our student-athletes and our staff continue to take seriously our goal of stressing the importance of academic success," Wilson said. "Our student-athletes are coming in better prepared when they enter Tennessee Tech, and they are staying on track to earn their degrees."

Tennessee Tech's 2022 Multi-Year APR Rates

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