On Tuesday, the NCAA released its annual Academic Progress Report (APR), which is based on the past four years' performance of every scholarship athletes' academic performance. All Boston College teams performed quite well. The average score for BC's 28 varsity programs was 989, 19 points above the national average. Every program scored 960 and above, and six programs scored a perfect score of 1,000 -- men's fencing, men's golf, men's skiing, women's lacrosse, women's skiing and women's tennis.
In other words, nothing to see here.
A look around the ACC's twelve football programs tells a different story. BC's football team scored a 971, which was 25 points above the national average. But not all ACC programs made out so well.
The Maryland Terrapins football team checked in with an multi-year score of 922, three points below the minimum threshold of 925. As a result, the Terps will be docked three scholarships because of their low APR score. The penalty is already in effect, which means that Edsall will only have 82 scholarship athletes on this year's roster. Maryland's 2009-10 score of 905 didn't help things out, as it looks like Friedgen (and Debbie Yow?) performed the academic equivalent of a dine and dash.
After Maryland, N.C. State and Florida State turned in the lowest multi-year APR scores for its football program. N.C. State's multi-year average of 929 is getting dangerously close to the NCAA's 925 limit, with its 2009-10 score below the threshold (921). Is the Disciplinarian getting soft as he gets up there in coaching years? What gives?
Florida State's football APR is improving, though its 932 multi-year score is nothing to write home about. Apparently Jimbo is making strides on the academic front, however, as FSU's 2009-10 score was well above the four-year average (956).
On the plus side, Duke lead all ACC football programs with a multi-year APR score of 986, followed by Miami (979), Clemson (977), BC and Wake Forest (971) and Georgia Tech (961). No real surprises there, as the four private schools in the conference finished in the top six in terms of multi-year, football APR (and good on ya, Clemson and Georgia Tech). Duke and Clemson led the way with a 994 score for the last reported year (2009-10).
The complete APR data set can be found on the NCAA's website.