The Division I Committee on Academic Performance will hear the first appeals of postseason bans at the group’s meeting February 16-18 in Indianapolis. Committee members will hear from teams seeking waivers of the third stage of historically based penalties, which are assessed after a team fails to meet minimum Academic Progress Rate benchmarks for three years.

The bulk of the meeting will be spent on the hearing process, laid out in detail when CAP met last summer. The process is similar to an infractions appeal, in part because of the seriousness of the penalties associated with third- and fourth-occasion historically based penalties (postseason competition restrictions and membership restrictions, respectively). The proceedings will be closed to non-participants.

Four institutions will present on behalf of five teams that have reached the postseason-ban penalty – applied when (1) a team fails to achieve a 900 multi-year APR, (2) does not demonstrate significant improvement and (3) fails to satisfy one of three possible filters (by-sport comparison, student-body comparison or institutional resources) for three consecutive years. The committee will consider a variety of factors – including mitigating circumstances – in rendering its decision. The committee could approve, conditionally approve, partially approve or deny the waiver request.

Schools will be notified of the outcome within three weeks of the hearing.

In other business, the committee will also continue working on the development of a “coaches career APR portfolio” for all head coaches in Division I, to be made available on a public Web site sometime in 2010.

The group will also begin to study the feasibility of a nonpublic, searchable database with more complete information about head coaches, including APR, infractions information and recruiting information. This database is expected to take longer to compile.

The CAP will also finalize its list of data-collection items for two-year college transfers. The committee developed a list at its October meeting and sought feedback from the membership before making a formal request that the items be collected as part of the Academic Performance Program.

Some of the items to be collected include:

•         Number and type of credits, and whether the credits were transferable.

•         Overall two-year college GPA.

•         Number of nontraditional courses in the term immediately before four-year institution enrollment.

•         Associate’s degree status.

•         Number of seasons of competition used.

The information will be collected with the 2008-09 APP data submitted in fall 2009.