National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2010
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Jun 9, 2010 1:57:16 PM
The NCAA News
The most recent Division I Academic Performance Rate data reveal not only an increased emphasis on academic success but also an increased accountability for it.
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RELATED The NCAA released the latest Academic Progress Rate figures Wednesday. Data show that student-athletes continue to achieve academically, but the numbers also reveal areas that need improvement. Analyzing APR over the last six years Successes: Culture changed in response to the APR, especially in baseball. Coaches contract accountability
Challenges: APR continues to challenge revenue sports and low-resource institutions.
What's next? The Committee on Academic Performance will review the entire program, including the penalty structure and benchmarks. More |
In addition to the head coach Academic Performance Rate portfolio, created specifically by the Committee on Academic Performance at the behest of the Board of Directors, the APR created a culture that prompted more athletics departments to write relevant clauses into contracts with coaches.
While many involved with the APR believe it's a sign that administrators are taking academic performance more seriously, others are wary that the trend makes academic success peripheral to athletics success.
Institutions have emphasized the APR to their coaches in different ways. Most schools provide a monetary incentive for meeting benchmarks. Last month, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun signed a contract that requires him to donate $100,000 of his salary to the school's general scholarship fund if the team loses a scholarship due to APR penalties. Athletics Director Jeff Hathaway told the Hartford Courant that the school wanted to underscore its commitment to academics.
"We believe that all of our coaches understand the importance of academics, and we believe they're going to deliver on the academics," Hathaway told the paper. "So we've never provided financial incentive for academic achievement."
At Mississippi, coaches in the higher-profile sports must return half of their incentive money for athletics success if the team doesn't perform to a specific standard academically.
"We don't do it as an incentive, because what's another $10,000 to a guy who is making a million or two million?" said Athletics Director Pete Boone. "We'll hold back their payments if they don't achieve the desired APR goal. That makes it real to them. They'd rather not have it, and I understand that, but it's part of the new world we live in."
Committee on Academic Performance chair Walter Harrison, president at Hartford, said he understands the motivation for including such clauses in contracts. Overall, though, he's found coaches to be involved and care deeply about the best interests of their student-athletes.
"It's a sign that an institution cares that the coach is looking out for the academic success of the student-athletes," he said. "But I think the coaches are motivated (without the clauses)."
Jack Evans, faculty athletics representative at North Carolina, said he personally doesn't favor such clauses. The CAP member said making academic performance an incentive in a contract relegates it to "afterthought" status.
"What we want to promote is the idea that academic performance in intercollegiate athletics is a part of a coach's responsibility," he said.