NCAA Academic Progress Rates Released
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The NCAA released its Academic Progress Rate report Tuesday, showing that all University of Kentucky sports teams surpassed the NCAA goal score. Fifteen of the 20 UK team scores exceeded the national average for public universities in their sports.
The women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, gymnastics, rifle, softball, women’s tennis and volleyball teams led the way with perfect 1,000 marks over the previous four years. Having eight teams notch perfect scores over a four-year period broke the school record.
The APR marks are a four-year composite, covering the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, taking a real-time look at academic success of scholarship student-athletes. The APR measures academic eligibility, retention and graduation.
Every Division I sports team across the nation calculates its APR each academic year, similar to a report card. Each semester, scholarship athletes earn one point for remaining on track to earn a degree and one point for staying in school or graduating.
The NCAA goal score is a 930 four-year APR. Teams scoring below 930 can face consequences, such as practice restrictions, playing-season reductions or disqualification from postseason, to direct more focus on academics.
Another highlight was that 12 UK teams notched perfect 1,000 scores for 2022-23, the most recent school year in the report: the eight teams mentioned above, along with baseball, men’s basketball, men’s golf and men’s tennis.
With each team exceeding the NCAA goal score, no Wildcat squads are subject to penalties. None of UK’s teams have incurred a penalty during the 20-year history of the APR.
Tuesday’s news is a continuation of the academic accomplishments of UK student-athletes:
- Spring graduation marked yet another milestone of academic success as UK Athletics had a total of 163 graduates during the 2023-24 school year.
- The 2024 spring semester was the 24th straight for UK Athletics with a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average.
- Fifty-nine Wildcats were recently named to the 2023-24 Winter Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll for having a 3.0 grade-point average for the preceding academic year or a cumulative 3.0 GPA.
- Recently, UK tied the school record for its NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 92 percent, one point above the national average of 91 percent.
- In August 2023, UK Athletics announced a school-record 12 Academic All-Americans for the 2022-23 school year from the College Sports Communicators organization.
- Nineteen current and former UK student-athletes were honored by the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives Board with Academic Excellence Awards, it was announced in February.
