VTTW Board Index

http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2013/jun/11/tennessee-football-takes-another-hit-ncaa-academic/ (http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2013/jun/11/tennessee-football-takes-another-hit-ncaa-academic/)

We have through next season to bring our 4-year APR average to 930. If we don't, we may be ineligible for postseason play after the 2014 season. The situation is actually pretty scary when you look at the details.

2011-2012: 909
2010-2011: 934
2009-2010: 921
2008-2009: 928

Current 4-yr avg: 924 (there's obviously some kind of weighting going on, because this is not a straight-up average. That would be 923.)

That means we lose the 928 and have to replace it with something that can raise our 4-year average up to 930. Namely, we need something like a single-year 956. I don't know exactly how that works but it's more than 20 points higher than any year in the last 4, and 7 points higher than our all-time best 4-year average. According to the NCAA, the mean for FBS was 954 . . . so 956 would seem achievable even if it's never been done at UT.

I don't know what the explanation for 2011-2012 is, but Dooley & Co. obviously brought some hardcore fail that year and it's killing us.

Actually let me clarify something after reading the NCAA site itself. The most recent report is 2011-2012. The new standard of 930 doesn't go into effect until the 2014-2015 report. Woodbery was not even close to making this clear in his article.

So Butch has 2012-2013 (shared with Dooley), 2013-2014, and 2014-2015 to bring the average up to 930. That means he'll still be screwed by the 909 but doesn't have to show unfathomable improvement in one year. We'll need to average about 937 for the next three years to do that.

Butch's career APR as a head coach is 940, but if you remove transition years and count years only in which Butch was solely responsible, it jumps to 952. This is doable.

we're ok as long as Butch keeps it going and does not have a lot of attrition. Football team had a great spring GPA.

I'm in favor of some kind of academic standards but I've always believed that it's not fair to include the stats of kids who leave or get booted. For many of them, that's why they left or got booted. Also, when kids leave early for the NFL, does that get factored in? If so, I don't like that either.

They aren't factored in if they leave in good academic standing. They are if they left in bad academic standing, no matter the reason they leave. The school can file a petition on this if there are special circumstances, though, and I think UT has done this in the past and will probably do this in the future.

APR of 930 is a very high standard when you consider that 2-year retention rates (ie, the % of students entering as freshmen that remain enrolled as juniors) for the university as a whole are something like 75%. They expect athletes to fair much better despite the extra time burdens of their sports participation.

I'm all for the higher academic standards, though I think there should be concessions for situations like UT's, where you're going through coaching situations that bring higher than average attrition rates.

Agreed, but this is tricky. I think the whole idea of APR and academic standards are so that you hold the school accountable for its responsibilities to the student-athlete, and one could argue that a turnstile of coaches is at least in part the institution's fault . . . meaning they put the student athletes in a position to fail. In UT's case the institution did initiate the turmoil, whether you think firing Fulmer was the right move or not.

But perhaps APR should have a probation and recovery plan mechanism rather than losing postseason play right away. That would at least let a new staff turn things around if left with a problem.

What does APR even mean?  Just curious...

As for 2011-2012...quack quack.  Lame duck coach.   :mad:

It appears that UConn's basketball team has improved their APR and is eligible again for the NCAA tourney. Hopefully our FB team can do the same.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9367741/uconn-huskies-qualify-academically-men-basketball-postseason (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9367741/uconn-huskies-qualify-academically-men-basketball-postseason)

Just get them a tutor...it will be fine.  :cool: