UA ties school mark as 11 athletic programs record perfect APR scores for 2021-22

Arizona tied a school record with 11 programs recording perfect Academic Progress Rate scores in 2021-22, including its men’s basketball team during what was coach Tommy Lloyd’s first season.

The scores imply the 11 programs were not penalized for any scholarship player who transferred or left early for professional sports. The UA men’s basketball team lost three players early in 2022 to the NBA, while Kim Aiken and Shane Nowell transferred out before their eligibility expired.

Of the 10 other UA sports recording perfect scores in 2021-22, six were women’s teams: softball, volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis, swimming and diving, and cross country. Another four were men’s sports: cross country, golf, tennis and track.

Men’s tennis, volleyball and women’s volleyball also had perfect multiyear APR scores, while all other Arizona sports also had multiyear APR scores comfortably above the 930 line at which the NCAA can levy penalties.

“Our student-athletes continue to set and exceed a championship standard of excellence in the classroom,” UA athletic director Dave Heeke said in a statement.

Among Pac-12 schools in multiyear APR scores, Arizona is tied for fourth in women’s basketball at 995, while men’s basketball ranks sixth at 984 and football is eighth at 966. The multiyear scores earned Lloyd a $25,000 bonus and women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes $10,000 extra. Football coach Jedd Fisch needed a 973 or higher to qualify for a bonus.

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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 to generate the score.

For basketball teams with 12 or 13 scholarship players, a score of about 980 translates into one “miss” of either academic ineligibility or retention during a two-semester academic year. 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 roughly 2.0 or better.

Transfers used to need a 2.6 GPA to avoid costing their former programs any APR points, but the NCAA moved to a less-firm requirement in 2021-22, allowing transfers to earn APR points for their former programs as long as they are “meeting Division I progress-toward-degree requirements when they change schools.”

The NCAA’s APR scores were updated Tuesday with the new 2021-22 numbers. The 2019-20 data was not released because of COVID disruptions but does factor into the four-year rate. However, penalties will not be assessed until new multiyear scores that include 2019-20 through 2022-23 are released in spring 2024.