Introduction to the NCAA

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• Introduction to the NCAA
• Division I Academic
• Performance Program
• John Shukie
• Katy Yurk

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Overview

• Academic Reform Background.
• Academic Performance Program (APP) Data
  Collection.
• APP Penalties
• APP Waivers
• Resources.

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Academic Reform Background
The need for competitiveness and the interest in
winning must be couple with a commitment to
assist and encourage student-athletes to succeed
academically. It is not competitiveness or
academic success. It must be both. -Dr. Myles
Brand, 2008 State of the Association Speech
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NCAA Academic Reform Cycle
Implementation
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APP Purpose

• Ensure the Division I membership is dedicated to
  providing student-athletes
• Exemplary educational and intercollegiate
  athletics experiences
• Environments that recognize and support academic
  mission of member institutions and
• Enhanced ability to earn a four-year degree.
• NCAA Division I Bylaw 23. 1.1

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Academic Reform as a "Package"

• Student-athlete accountability through increased
  academic-eligibility standards.
• New academic rates of measure, real-time rate and
  better graduation rate.
• Team performance accountability through
  contemporaneous and historical penalties.

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Academic Reform as a "Package"

• Department of athletics academic accountability
  through historical penalties.
• Focus on campus efforts to improve academic
  performance, retention and graduation for all
  teams. 
• Recognition of academically high-achieving teams.

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Academic Reform as a "Package"

• ALL components critical to overall academic
  improvement.

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NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance

• Duties
• Administrative body for APP.
• Oversee data collection process.
• Identify APP "cut" lines.
• Provide interpretations of APP legislation and
  policies.

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Committee on Academic Performance

• Duties (continued)
• Communicate annual APP rates APR and GSR.
• Identify teams demonstrating academic excellence
  under the APP.
• Serve as the appellate body for APP policies and
  penalties.
• Bylaw 23.1.2

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APP Data Collection
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Academic Performance Program Data Collection

• GSR.
• APR.
• Academic Performance Census (APC).

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Graduation Success Rate

• Why the GSR?
• More accurate than Federal Graduation Rate.
• Includes transfers into an institution.
• Includes midyear enrollees.
• Removes student-athletes who withdraw and would
  have been academically eligible to compete the
  next term had they returned.
• Calculated for every sport.

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Graduation Success Rate

• Data is submitted electronically (attend APP Data
  Collection session for more details).
• Data is used in analysis for APP penalty waivers.
• Failure to submit will result in an institution
  being declared ineligible for postseason
  competition, including NCAA championships.

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Graduation Success Rate

• Due no later than June 1, 2009.
• Required of Division I member institutions for
  ALL sponsored sports.
• Divisions II and III member institutions that
  sponsor a Division I sport (multidivisional
  classification) must complete data for Division I
  sport(s).
• This year collecting 2002-03 freshman cohort
  data.

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Academic Progress Rate

• Why APR?
• Real-time rate.
• Includes all student-athletes on a team in a
  given year (as opposed to entering class).
• Used in analysis for contemporaneous and
  historical penalties and public recognition of
  top academically performing teams.

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Academic Progress Rate

• Points awarded for eligibility/graduation and
  retention.
• Term-by-term measurement.
• Totaled over most recent four years.
• Includes student-athletes receiving athletically
  related financial aid.
• OR
• For nonscholarship programs/teams, a subset of
  recruited student-athletes.

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Academic Progress Rate

• Two available points each academic term.
• Eligibility (E) point student-athlete meets
  academic eligibility standards for the next
  academic term.
• Retention (R) point student-athlete is enrolled
  full time as of the fifth week of classes of the
  next term.
• number of points earned
• number of points possible X 1000 APR

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Academic Progress Rate

• Due date for APR data is six weeks after the
  institution's first day of classes.
• Failure to submit will result in an institution
  being declared ineligible for postseason
  competition, including NCAA championships.
• Data is submitted electronically for any team
• With Division I championships or National
  Collegiate Championships
• Considered to be Division I
• Classified as varsity by the institution.

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Academic Progress Rate

• Whats new
• Two-year transfer data.
• Academic data on two-year transfers for research.
• Head Coaches APR Portfolio.
• Web site to display single-year APR for head
  coach, along with dates individual was employed
  as head coach.
• 2009-10 pilot year- football, mens and womens
  basketball, baseball and womens indoor/outdoor
  track data to be released summer 2010.
• Information for other sports to be collected fall
  2010 with release scheduled for summer 2011.

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Academic Performance Census

• Why APC?
• Academic data for NCAA research purposes. 
• Data informs academic policies. 
• Information is completed and submitted online
  using the APP Data Collection Program.
• Failure to submit will result in an institution
  being declared ineligible for postseason
  competition, including NCAA championships.

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Academic Performance Program Timeline
Data Submission Phase (due six weeks after first
day of classes).
Verification Phase (NCAA staff).
Correction Phase (14 calendar days). Penalty
reports available in APP system after corrections.
Penalty Waiver Phase (14 to 21 calendar days to
submit).
APR Adjustment Phase (14 calendar days to
submit).
Final Submit (e-mail sent to chancellor/president)
.
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Delayed-Graduation Point

• Point (1/0) awarded in the term the former
  student-athlete graduates.
• Restores lost APR "E" or "R" point.
• Point received in the sport reported.
• Permitted to request delayed-graduation points
  for any academic year cohort that comprise the
  multiyear APR cohort.

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Delayed-Graduation Point

• Criteria are as follows
• Student-athlete graduates from your institution
  2005 or later.
• Former student-athlete was not included in the
  team's APR cohort in the term in which he or she
  graduated from your institution.
• Former student-athlete lost the "E" or "R" point
  in his or her last term in the APR cohort or
  would have lost a point if the student-athlete
  departed prior to the implementation of the APR
  in 2003-04.

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Academic Progress Rate Adjustments

• Discount lost APR point(s) for a term or terms
  from the denominator.
• May request adjustment to lost "E" point, lost
  "R" point or both.
• Requests are based on mitigation affecting
  individual student-athletes.

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Adjustment Review Process

• Guiding principles
• Based on circumstances surrounding individual
  student-athlete.
• Are circumstances beyond the control of the
  student-athlete and/or team/institution?
• Decisions/Appeals
• Initial decision by staff.
• Appeals to the NCAA Division I Committee on
  Academic Performance Subcommittee on Data
  Collection and Reporting.

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NCAA Division I APR Improvement Plans

• Required for
• Teams with a multiyear APR below 925 without the
  use of the squad-size adjustment.
• Teams with multiyear APR below 900 (must submit).
  
• Teams requesting relief from an APP penalty (must
  submit).
• Teams identified as eligible for the Supplemental
  Support Fund (SSF) (must submit).
• Feedback provided to all institutions submitting
  plans to the national office.

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APP Penalties
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APP Penalties

• Two different penalty structures
• Contemporaneous penalties.
• Intended to encourage improved academic
  performance, serve as a "warning" for poorly
  performing teams and help avoid the more serious
  historical penalties (e.g., rehabilitative in
  nature).
• Historical penalties.
• More significant punitive measure for teams that
  habitually underperform academically.

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Squad-Size Adjustment

• Helps ensure that any penalties given to teams
  with small sample sizes are as statistically
  valid as those for teams with large sample sizes.
• Statistical adjustment for squad-size available
  for
• Teams with fewer than 30 student-athletes in a
  four-year cohort or
• Teams with fewer than four years make up the
  multiyear APR for the team.

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Contemporaneous Penalties Defined Financial Aid
Restriction

• Team's maximum financial aid limit is reduced by
  the value of total countable aid awarded to the
  student-athlete who did not earn eligibility and
  was not retained the following academic year.
• Penalties must be taken at the next available
  opportunity.

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Contemporaneous Penalties Determining the
Penalty

• Teams with a multiyear APR below 925 subject to
  contemporaneous penalties if
• Any student-athlete departed the institution and
• Did not earn eligibility ("0/2").
• Some exceptions apply (e.g., student-athlete with
  no athletics eligibility remaining).
• Aid awarded to an 0/2 cannot be re-awarded.

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Capping" of Contemporaneous Penalty Scholarship
Losses

• Contemporaneous penalties are meant to be
  "attention-getting" penalties.
• Thus, number of contemporaneous penalties that
  apply to a team for any given year is limited.
• Cap approximately 10 percent of NCAA maximum
  team limit, rounded up for head-count sports.

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Historical Penalties

• Restrict or deny the benefits of the Association
  for those teams that have a demonstrated history
  of academic underachievement.
• Teams that habitually underperform academically
  are the primary target of the historical-penalty
  structure.
• Penalties are progressive and cumulative in
  nature.

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Historical-Penalty Structure

• Progressive and cumulative
• Occasion One Public announcement for squad.
• Occasion Two Public announcement AND financial
  aid and practice restrictions for squad).
• Occasion Three Public announcement AND
  financial aid and practice restrictions
  (including season and contest restrictions for
  baseball) AND postseason competition restriction
  for squad.
• Occasion Four Public announcement AND financial
  aid and practice restrictions (including season
  and contest restrictions for baseball) AND
  postseason competition restriction for squad AND
  restricted membership status for institution.

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Historical Penalties

• Institutions must demonstrate three "clean" years
  (without penalty) in order to avoid progression
  in the historical penalty structure.

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Historical Penalties"Improvement Plus" Model

• Teams scoring below 900 are reviewed for
  historical penalties to determine if they
• Are making significant improvement, which is
  determined by review of four tests
• Most recent single-year APR vs. previous
  single-year APR.
• Most recent single-year APR vs. multi-year APR
  for previous two years.
• Most recent single-year APR vs. multi-year APR
  for previous three years.
• Multi-year APR from years three and four vs.
  multi-year APR from years one and two.
• AND.

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Historical Penalties"Improvement Plus" Model

• Compare favorably based on one of the following
  three factors
• By sport review Team must be above the bottom
  10 of team APR within that sport.
• Institutional characteristics Comparison of
  institutional, athletics and student body
  resource levels to identify the bottom 10 of
  schools in overall financial resources.
• Comparison vs. general student-body APR of team
  must project to a Federal Graduation Rate that is
  10 or more percentage points higher than the
  general student body rate.

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APP Penalty Waivers
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APP Waiver Portal

• On the NCAA Web site, go to https//web1.ncaa.org/
  LSDBi/exec/homepage.
• Username institution's or conference's sports
  sponsorship username.
• Password sports sponsorship password.
• Different than APP Data Collection Program
  username and password.
• Click the Login button.

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Waiver Requests

• Full relief of penalty.
• Partial relief of penalty (e.g., relief from
  scholarship penalty but not practice penalty).
• Delay in application of penalty.

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Penalty Waiver Directive

• Guiding principles
• Based on team's academic performance.
• Review of historical-penalty factors.
• Anomaly or pattern.
• Reasonable expectation to improve to 925 within a
  reasonable period of time.
• Acceptable APR Improvement Plan.
• For a delay, verification that the penalty cannot
  be taken as prescribed.

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Penalty Waiver Review Process

• Contemporaneous/Historical Occasion One and Two
• Initial decision by staff.
• Appeals to the Committee on Academic Performance
  Subcommittee on Appeals.
• Historical Occasion Three and Four
• Initial review by staff staff may approve or
  conditionally approve.
• In-person hearings in February and April in front
  of Committee on Academic Performance.
• Opportunity to appeal to Division I Board of
  Directors.

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Waiver Decisions

• Approve.
• Partial.
• Conditional approval.
• Partial conditional approval.
• Deny.

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Resources
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Where Can I Get More Information?

• NCAA Staff
• Maria DeJulio, mdejulio_at_ncaa.org
• GSR and Integrated Postsecondary-Education Data
  System, data-related issues and data correction
  requests.
• Michael Moleta, mmoleta_at_ncaa.org
• APP data reviews, APR Improvement Plans and
  LSDBi issues.
• Binh Nguyen, bnguyen_at_ncaa.org
• APR adjustments APR and GSR deadline extensions
  and reinstatement for NCAA championships and
  requests for alternative definition of cohort and
  adjustments.

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Where Can I Get More Information?

• NCAA Staff
• Bill Regan, bregan_at_ncaa.org
• APR Improvement Plans and educational
  initiatives occasion three and four
  historical-penalty waivers.
• Katy Yurk, kyurk_at_ncaa.org
• Contemporaneous- and occasion one and two
  historical-penalty waivers.

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Where Can I Get More Information?

• Bylaw 23.
• NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance
  Policy Manual.
• NCAA Division I APP Data Collection Guide.
• NCAA Division I APP Penalties Guide.
• Available on the Committee on Academic
  Performance Website. (http//www.ncaa.org/wps/nca
  a?ContentID869)

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Re-CAP

• Academic Reform Background.
• APP Data Collection.
• APP Penalties.
• APP Waivers
• Resources.

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• Questions?