Multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for 10 Georgia Southern Athletics teams improved for the reporting period ending with the 2010-11 academic year, according to the most recent data provided by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Wednesday.
    GSU's men’s tennis program did not show any change in its multi-year score, maintaining a 989 for the third consecutive year. Of the 15 GSU programs, all but two achieved multi-year scores above the 925 standard. The NCAA on Wednesday released the multi-year and single-year APR scores for the most recent reporting period.
    For the third time in four years, five GSU teams posted perfect single-year scores of 1,000, with cross country program achieving that mark for the third consecutive year. Women’s basketball, golf, men’s tennis and women’s tennis also posted single-year 1,000 scores for the 2010-11 reporting period.
    The NCAA initiated APR as a means for providing intercollegiate athletics programs with a snapshot of a team's academic success and progress of individual student-athletes, accounting for eligibility, retention and graduation.
    APR for each institution is calculated as follows: each student-athlete on scholarship, full or partial, in every intercollegiate sport, accounts for four APR "points" every academic year — two for the fall semester and two for the spring semester. One point is given for a student-athlete remaining academically eligible and the other point is given for continued enrollment at the respective institution. Each student-athlete can earn a maximum of four points each year.
    Single-year APR data covers the 2010-11 academic year only and is calculated by dividing the number of points earned by an individual sport’s student-athletes by the number of points possible and then multiplying by 1,000 for the team's single-season APR.
    All 15 of GSU's programs posted single-year scores above the NCAA’s 925 benchmark for the most recent reporting period. The multi-year number is an average of the APR scores of each sport from the past four academic years: 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.
    Significant increases in recent single-year APR scores for men’s basketball and football are helping improve the multi-year APR scores for those two programs. GSU men’s basketball posted a 902 multi-year APR with football improving to a 923.
    Comparing the data sets of the 2009-10 and 2010-11 reporting periods, multi-year scores for 11 sports increased. Of the programs that did not show an increase, the largest difference between the multi-year averages was 11 points.
    “We continue to see progress, not only in the multi-year APR scores, but also in the other indicators of academic success,” said Keith Roughton, GSU Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Eligibility and Director of Student-Athlete Services. “Our student-athletes posted the highest-ever grade-point average for the department during the 2010-11 reporting period and have recorded an even higher GPA for the recently completed academic year.         "The university has provided the resources and staff, and our coaching staffs reinforce our athletic department’s primary commitment to the ‘student’ part of the student-athlete. Those elements are key to our present and future accomplishments. ”