INDIANAPOLIS - Three Middle Tennessee athletic programs - tops in the Sun Belt Conference - have earned Public Recognition Awards as released by the NCAA on Tuesday.
Blue Raider football, men's tennis, and men's golf were recognized by the award which is based on their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rates. These awards are given each year to teams scoring in the top 10 percent in each sport with their APRs.
All three sports at Middle Tennessee competed in postseason play and have helped the program all but secure it's third straight Sun Belt All-Sports Trophy.
"This speaks to our institutions commitment from Dr. (Sidney) McPhee on down for how we balance academics and championships," said Director of Athletics Chris Massaro. "It is gratifying to know that we win our league's all-sports trophy each year and now we have more teams recognized for APR achievement than any program in the Sun Belt Conference."
The Blue Raiders were one of just 14 FBS football programs honored by the NCAA with eight being from automatic qualifying conferences and six coming from the non-automatic qualifying leagues. The football programs recognized were Air Force, Boise State, Clemson, Duke, Miami of FL, Middle Tennessee, Navy, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rice, Rutgers, Stanford, and Vanderbilt.
"This is great recognition but not surprising because we take academics very seriously at Middle Tennessee," said Rick Stockstill, head football coach. "Our goal and main priority is for each student-athlete to leave here with a degree in hand." Through its innovative APR, which provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team. The most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years.
Full APR scores for all teams, including penalties for low-performing teams, will be released May 24.
The 909 teams publicly recognized this year for high achievement represent 14 percent of the 6,385 eligible Division I teams. The list includes 525 women's teams and 384 men's or mixed squads.
For the first time with its public recognition awards, the NCAA is separating the sport of football by its bowl and championship subdivisions.
A total of 239 institutions, out of 335 Division I colleges and universities, placed at least one team on the top APR list. Another 11 schools that offer athletics in more than one division, out of 52 overall within the NCAA, placed Division I teams on the list as well.
In the six years of the NCAA's academic reform program, 1,992 different teams have received Public Recognition Awards, representing 31 percent of eligible sports teams during that time. Of that total, 260 teams have received Public Recognition Awards each of the six years of the program. |
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