The NCAA released the latest round of APR (Academic Progress Report) scores
on Tuesday, and although Virginia Tech improved in almost every sport, they
still rank near the bottom of the ACC in many of the important categories. The
Hokies are dead last in baseball, and the football program doesn’t appear to be
close to climbing out of the cellar.

An APR score is assigned to each individual sports team at a university, and
the APR measures the overall progress of the student-athletes who are part of
that team. The APR is a measure of the eligibility, academic progress, and the
progress towards a degree of the athletes that comprise a team. Athletes who
fall behind academically, become ineligible, quit while ineligible, or fail to
graduate can all adversely affect the APR of their team.

The penalty for a poor APR is the loss of scholarships. How the NCAA computes
the APR is complicated, but it boils down to this: a score of 1,000 is perfect,
and a score under 925 means that a team is in danger of losing scholarships.
There are a number of factors that ultimately affect the NCAA’s decision to
punish or not punish a given athletic team, so the 925 level is not a hard
floor. Generally, teams with scores far above 925 need not worry for the time
being, when teams hovering around 925 and under 925 have cause for concern and
might be punished.

The APR data that the NCAA uses to make decisions is a “multiyear”
APR calculated over four academic years. For the first time ever, four years of
data have been accumulated for this year’s APR. Let’s take a look and see how
the Hokies are doing.

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