The Arizona women’s basketball team posted a perfect 1,000 score in the NCAA’s multi-year Academic Progress Ratings released Tuesday, earning coach Adia Barnes a $15,000 bonus, while men’s basketball jumped to the third spot in the Pac-12 at 990.
The UA men’s tennis and beach volleyball teams also earned 1,000 multi-year scores, which are four-year rolling averages of the NCAA’s retention and eligibility metric, dating back to 2017-18. Both men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields and volleyball coach Steve Walker are contracted to earn $7,500 bonuses for the achievements.
Arizona’s football team ranked eighth in the Pac-12 with a 965 multi-year rate, tied with women’s golf for the lowest score at the school, but both sports were still well above the penalty line of 930.
Meanwhile, Arizona signaled improvement in other multi-year scores might be ahead with a school-record-tying 10 programs recording perfect scores during the 2020-21 academic year.
In addition to the three programs with perfect four-year scores, UA programs recording 1,000 in 2020-21 included soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, softball, women’s cross country, women’s track and field, and men’s golf.
“The sustained excellence of Wildcat student-athletes in the classroom continues to reach new heights,” UA athletic director Dave Heeke said in a statement.
Unlike graduation rates, the NCAA’s APR ratings are relatively real-time measurements of a program’s retention and academic eligibility. Each player typically represents four opportunities per year, one in retention and one in eligibility for each semester, and the percentage of successes is multiplied by 1,000.
For basketball teams with 13 scholarship players, a score of 980 translates into one “miss” of either academic ineligibility or retention. However, there are a number of ways points can be restored — and there is no penalty for players who leave early and sign pro contracts but do so while academically eligible nor are there penalties for players who transfer but record a grade-point average of 2.6 or better.
The NCAA’s APR scores were updated Tuesday for the first time in two years, since the 2019-20 data was not released in 2021 because of COVID disruptions. The 2019-20 year does factor into the four-year rate, however, penalties will not be assessed in 2021 or 2022.
APR can be found via the NCAA’s searchable database. Here are the Pac-12 multi-year scores in football and basketball:
<&rule>
Football
1. Washington 993
2. Utah 991
3. Stanford 985
4. ASU 983
5. Cal 975
USC 975
7. OSU 973
<&rdpStrong>8. Arizona 965</&rdpStrong>
9. Oregon 960
10. WSU 959
11. Colorado 954
12. UCLA 947
<&rule>
Men’s basketball
1. ASU 1,000
2. Stanford 998
<&rdpStrong>3. Arizona 990</&rdpStrong>
4. USC 988
5. Washington 987
6. Cal 970
WSU 970
8. UCLA 969
9. OSU 960
10. Colorado 956
11. Utah 955
12. Oregon 948
<&rule>
Women’s basketball
<&rdpStrong>1. Arizona 1,000</&rdpStrong>
ASU 1,000
3. Stanford 996
4. Cal 995
5. Washington 993
6. OSU 989
7. Colorado 986
8. Utah 986
9. Oregon 984
10. UCLA 983
11. WSU 981
12. USC 980
<&rule>
The individual year APR scores that are factoring into multi-year rates for UA football and basketball teams:
Football
2020-21 951
2019-20 979*
2018-19 968
2017-18 962
<&rdpStrong>Multi-year average: 965</&rdpStrong>
<&rule>
Men’s basketball **
2020-21 979
2019-20 1,000*
2018-19 980
2017-18 1,000
<&rdpStrong>Multi-year average: 990</&rdpStrong>
<&rule>
Women’s basketball**
2020-21 1,000
2019-20 1,000*
2018-19 1,000
2017-18 982
<&rdpStrong>Multi-year average: 1,000</&rdpStrong>
<&rdpEm>* Estimated based on multi-year average and scores for other three years. The NCAA did not release 2019-20 scores.</&rdpEm>
<&rdpEm>** Arizona’s men’s and women’s basketball teams received additional point credits to reach their multi-year average scores even though revised single-year scores are not announced. Based on the multi-year scores, UA men’s basketball received one extra point and women’s basketball earned 18 extra points.</&rdpEm>
<&rule>
APR scores for all Arizona sports:
Men’s sports
<&rdpStrong>Sport/multi-year score/2020-21 score </&rdpStrong>
Baseball/978/980
Basketball/990/979
Cross country/976/900
Football/965/951
Golf/995/1,000
Swimming and diving/994/989
Tennis/1,000/1,000
Track and field/982/965
<&rule>
Women’s sports
<&rdpStrong>Sport/multi-year score //2020-21 score </&rdpStrong>
Basketball/1,000/1,000
Cross country/978/1,000
Golf/965/926
Gymnastics/995/1,000
Softball/993/1,000
Soccer/992/1,000
Beach volleyball/1,000/1,000
Swimming and diving/990/987
Tennis/993/968
Volleyball/995/1,000
Track and field/984/1,000
<&rule>
Arizona coach bonuses
Bonuses paid to Arizona coaches for their program’s multi-year APR score:
Coach/sport/multi-year APR/UA bonus</&hrdp2>
Adia Barnes/women’s basketball/1,000/$15,000
Clancy Shields/men’s tennis/1,000/$7,500
Steve Walker/beach volleyball/1,000/$7,500
Jim Anderson/men’s golf/995/$5,000
John Court/gymnastics/995/$5,000
Augie Busch/swimming and diving/*/$5,000
Ryan Stotland/women’s tennis/993/$5,000
Dave Rubio/volleyball/995/$5,000
Fred Harvey/track-field-cc/**/$3,450
Laura Ianello/women’s golf/965/$1,500
<&rdpEm>NOTE: Coaches in place during the 2020-21 season do not receive the bonus if they leave before the APR ratings for that season are published (i.e. men’s basketball coach Sean Miller).</&rdpEm>
<&rdpEm>* Busch received a $2,500 bonus for the men’s swimming and diving team (994) and another $2,500 for the women’s swimming and diving team (990).</&rdpEm>
<&rdpEm>** Harvey received $650 for men’s track (982), $650 for men’s cross country (976), $1,500 for women’s track (978) and $650 for women’s cross country.</&rdpEm>
</&hrdp2>
