An NCAA task force has made some recommendations on how to change college football's current postseason format. Among the more controversial recommendations is a change to bowl qualifications that would require a program maintain a minimum Academic Progress Rate score of 930 in order to participate. A 930 APR score is roughly the equivalent of a program maintaining a 50 percent graduation rate, the NCAA says.
Doesn't sound all that difficult, until you realize that eight of last year's bowl participants would have been bowl ineligible for failing to meet the 930 threshold (although some just barely missing). Among them:
-- Louisville (908)
-- UTEP (918)
-- Maryland (922)
-- Tulsa (927)
-- Michigan (928)
-- Southern Mississippi (928)
-- N.C. State (929)
-- BYU (929)
Interesting to see both Maryland and N.C. State on this list. If a rule like this was ever implemented, a program like Boston College could be the beneficiary when it comes time for bowl selection. Without being able to select two bowl-eligible programs from the conference, BC could climb the bowl selection pecking order just a little to get into a more desirable bowl game.* I mean, hey, every little bit helps right?
Unfortunately, I don't think the NCAA will move towards implementing a rule like this. College football is already barely filling its 70 annual bowl slots, with just 72 bowl-eligible teams from a season ago. The day a program like Alabama or Michigan was held out of college football's postseason for posting a multi-year APR is the day Crimson Tide and Wolverine fans would literally burn down Indianapolis. And imagine if these programs were held out of a BCS bowl or even the MNC ...
* That is, if BC ever becomes bowl eligible again.