The NCAA on Wednesday announced its 2016-17 NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate data, and Tennessee’s APR numbers once again rank among the most impressive in the 14 years in which the data has been published.
Every Division I sports team across the nation calculates its Academic Progress Rate each academic year, like a report card. Scholarship student-athletes each semester earn one point for remaining eligible and one point for staying in school or graduating. Data released for this multi-year cohort includes scores from the 2016-17, 2015-16, 2014-15 and 2013-14 academic years.
Four Tennessee sports, including baseball (979), football (972), men’s golf (993) and women’s swimming & diving (994) posted or tied its best multi-year APR in program history. And women’s basketball (995) posted its second-best multi-year APR score and its best in six years.
Four programs also earned perfect 1,000 multi-year APR scores for this cohort. Those programs were men’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s tennis (for the ninth consecutive year) and women’s track & field. In the single-year APR, eight Tennessee sports earned a perfect score of 1,000.
Five sports—men’s cross country, women’s golf, rowing, women’s tennis and men’s track & field—posted the best multi-year APR score amongst their respective SEC peers. The five first-place finishes were the third most among SEC institutions.
From a multi-year standpoint, 11 of Tennessee’s 18 measured sports (for APR purposes, scores for indoor and outdoor track & field are computed together) tied or improved their APRs from last year. And 14 of those 18 programs have a multi-year APR equal to or higher than the national average of all Division I schools within that sport.
“It’s a great time to be on Rocky Top,” Senior Associate Athletics Director & Assistant Provost Joe Scogin said. “I could not be more excited about the APR performances that we continue to see. APR was created to provide a real-time snapshot of the culture of an athletic department. Seeing these championship level results shows how our coaches, administrators, Thornton staff, and student-athletes have invested in creating a culture of excellence every single day. I firmly believe that these results are just a by-product of the holistic student-athlete experience we strive to provide at UT. It is very special to see this work manifest itself in so many ways, one of which is the APR performances we’re seeing today.”
Tennessee Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer, who was named to his current post in December, has been pleased with the internal culture of achievement that has yielded outstanding academic results for the Big Orange in recent years.
“Seeing the way our young men and women take care of their academic responsibilities has been one of the things that has impressed me most during my first six months as AD,” Fulmer said. “This data serves as proof that our overall athletics program is thriving academically, and we are effectively preparing our student-athletes for success once they leave our campus. I again feel compelled to compliment our senior leadership team, our coaching staffs and our incredible Thornton Center staff, led by Dr. Joe Scogin. But the biggest stars are our student-athletes.”
Wednesday’s APR data release continues a string of impressive academic news for the Vols and Lady Vols.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Tennessee student-athletes posted a 3.07 overall grade-point average during the 2018 spring semester. That stands as the highest spring GPA in recorded UT history and ties the program’s highest-ever single-semester GPA. Tennessee student-athletes have now posted 11 consecutive semesters with a combined overall GPA of 3.00 or better.
And earlier this month, it was reported that four Tennessee athletic programs earned coveted Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA after scoring in the top 10 percent of their Division I peers in this year’s APR release (men’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s track & field).
In addition to some great team performances, we’ve had a number of individuals recognized for their academic achievement. Football player Parker Henry won the prestigious McWhorter Award as the SEC’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year (softball player Meghan Gregg was a female McWhorter finalist). Rower Katie Porter earned distinction as a “Torchbearer,” which is the highest student honor conferred by the University of Tennessee. Fellow rower Jennifer Davis was awarded an NCAA Ethnic Minority & Women’s Enhancement Scholarship. And Nico Mascia was named the SEC Baseball Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year.
In addition, 27 undergraduate student-athletes received Chancellor’s Citations for Extraordinary Academic Achievement at the 2018 Chancellor’s Honors Banquet.
Tennessee’s 2016-17 APR Public Report | 2016-17 Tennessee APR Highlights
-UT Athletics
