BEAUMONT, Texas — The NCAA released their annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) number. Lamar Athletics finished the season with seven sports(men's cross country, men's golf, men's tennis, women's basketball, women's tennis, women's golf and soccer) recording a perfect 1,000 score for the year, while men's and women's tennis posted a 1,000 score for the rolling four-year period from the 2015-16 through 2018-19 academic year.
In addition to those scores, soccer, volleyball and men's golf finished the four- year cohort with 980 or better.
"I couldn't be prouder," Lamar Athletic Director Marco Born said. "I think this past year has been the best academic year we've had in awhile, certainly since I've been here."
The NCAA announced that Division I student-athletes earned an overall multiyear APR of 983 for a third straight year.
“The NCAA as whole has been setting records based on the APR data for the past three years and I’m proud to say that Lamar University has been a key piece of that record setting trend,” Born said in a statement. “APR was a plan that was created approximately 15 years ago by the NCAA membership to help keep institutions accountable for their eligibility and retention of each student-athlete. Since its inception, our coaches and staff have taken this very seriously.”
In order to compete in the postseason, team must hit and maintain a 930 APR. Stephen F. Austin University failed to meet those requirements in football, baseball and basketball and were hit with Level I sanctions.
In a statement, Director of Athletics Ryan Ivey said there was an administrative error in the academic certification process resulting in the miscalculation of SFA's reported APR scores.
Though Born was unable to comment directly on the Lumberjacks probation, Born and his staff are doing everything they can to avoid any future miscalculations.
"We've got our compliance staff, our academic staff in place and those certification, APR and compliance issues are concerns that we have and talk about on a daily basis," Born said. "Since I've been here, we've brought in a consultant that has educated us better on APR. That's really just part of an educational piece so we know what to look for and I feel like we're in a really good spot."