Arizona's football and basketball teams both took a dip in NCAA Academic Progress Ratings, while football remained last in the Pac-12, but both programs remain over the penalty line of 930.
Men's basketball had a 936 score in 2016-17 and has a 963 overall four-year rate, ninth best in the Pac-12. Football had a 951 in '16-17 and now has a 946 four-year rate that is last in the Pac-12 after it posted 955 following the 2015-16 season.
Among Pac-12 schools, Washington is first in football at 986 while Stanford leads in basketball with a perfect four-year rate of 1000. UCLA is last in basketball at 944.
While the roster numbers in football make pinpointing issues difficult, Arizona's 936 basketball rate in 2016-17 indicates two or three possible "misses" in academic ineligibility or lack of retention. Chance Comanche, Kobi Simmons and Ray Smith all left early, though waivers were possible since Comanche and Simmons signed pro deals and Smith retired medically after suffering his third torn ACL.
Designed to measure academic progress and retention -- not graduation rate -- the NCAA's APR is calculated by giving each scholarship athlete a point for each semester he or she is retained and a point for each semester he or she remains in the program. The score is then determined by dividing total "hits" by total chances and multiplying by 1000.
Since men's basketball had 12 scholarship athletes in 2016-17, there were up to 48 possible points available, though some circumstances reduce the points available (i.e. that Smith may have only counted as a "1 for 1" in one semester rather than a "2 for 2" because of his retirement) or add points back if a player leaves early but winds up signing a pro contract.
Getting 44 of 47 possible points equals the 963 rating that Arizona had in 2016-17.
The NCAA's APR database allows you to search by sports, year, conference or school while the official PDF of Arizona's scores is attached to this post.
