Virginia Tech Athletics posts strong Academic Progress Rates

In collegiate athletics, performing on the field is only half of the battle, with performance in the classroom completing the experience of the student-athlete in major college sports.

The NCAA released their annual Academic Progress Rates (APRs) for the rolling four year average ending in the 2015-16 school year on Wednesday afternoon, and every sport at Virginia Tech posted passing marks (more on this in a moment).

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Note that the NCAA runs the calculation on a one year delay due to the release date of these scores, so the 2016-17 marks will not be available until May of 2018, once all schools have fully completed the 2016-17 school year.

The APR was developed by the NCAA prior to the 2004-05 school year to aid in monitoring academic success among scholarship athletes across the country. Scholarship athletes can earn one point by staying in school and one point for remaining academically eligible.

The total points for a team are divided by total amount of points possible, then multiplied by 1,000 to calculate the APR. The minimum standard to avoid postseason sanctions by the NCAA is a score of 930.

In the four-year rolling period ending in the 2015-16 school year, the Hokies had seven teams post perfect single-year scores. The teams included men’s tennis, men’s cross country, men’s track, women’s track, women’s tennis, softball, and women’s golf.

Of note, two of those teams at Virginia Tech, the men’s golf and women’s tennis programs, received Public Recognition Awards for a perfect APR scores across multiple years.

In addition, Virginia Tech’s football program posted a 967 APR, which is one point above average compared to the rest of the schools in the FBS.

While this 967 score is safely adequate, it is the lowest score posted since 2009-10, when the football program posted an average APR of 955.